X-MEN AU
by Dreamgirl32
Summary: Being a mutant is never easy. Prejudice turns normal people into monsters. The government's stacked against you. Some mutants believe we have to fight to equality. Others say we must hide. You tell me, what are we supposed to do? Light sexual content.
1. Red Wedding

Percy stood in front of the mirror and tried not to fidget like a little kid. He was wearing a suit. A very nice, very expensive, very uncomfortable suit. He hated suits. On top of that his hair looked like his mom had done it this morning (which may or may not be true) and he generally looked like a dork. It took every once of willpower he had not to mess it up.

Instead he paced around the very small room, his mind going a mile a minute. He kept thinking _'It's happening. Oh my god, it's really happening.' _over and over again.

"You're not getting cold feet are yah?" said a familiar voice from the doorway. Ripping Percy violently from his thoughts. (Well, thought)

His face broke into a grin, he went to hug his friend "Luke." he said "We were worried you weren't gonna make it."

"You look like a loser." Luke replied "Here." he ran his fingers through Percy's hair and adjusted his shirt a bit. When Percy checked the mirror again, he still looked way to formal for his liking, and the pants still itched in all the wrong places. But at least he looked _something _more like himself.

"You didn't think I'd miss this, did you?"

"What time'd you get in?" Percy replied

"Uh, just now, actually. I had to take a cab and there was traffic on-"

"You took a cab from Washington D.C.? The fare must've been insane."

"Well does that mean I can get out of getting you guys a present?" Luke suggested

Percy laughed "Not a chance. Did you visit your mom like you planned?"

Luke's face fell.

"I take that as a yes then." Percy supplied

"She's not getting better. If anything she's getting worse. It was like she was looking right though me."

"Ah, man, I'm sorry. I should've mentioned it."

"Don't worry about it." Luke said. But for a moment he didn't say anything and Percy could tell there was a lot weighing on him. Not just his mom, either, Percy wondered if things had gone alright on his trip to Washington. Then Luke clapped his hands and put on a smile again like he didn't have a care in the world.

"But enough about that. You little runts are finally tying the knot. Let's talk about that."

"Oh, actually, could you do me a favor?" Percy asked, picking up a small boy from the table "For obvious reasons, I've been locked out of Annabeth's dressing room. Would you mind running this over to her? It's her, uh, something new." He handed the box to Luke.

"Sure, no problem." he turned to go "Oh, and Percy? Don't play with the bowtie. If that comes out it'll take forever to get right again."

"You're telling me."

Luke went down the hall and found Annabeth in a very different state then Percy. He had been pacing around, trying not to freak out or do something stupid, Annabeth was standing almost too still in front of the mirror, admiring her wedding dress and lost in thought. she almost didn't notice when he came in. Then she smiled and hugged him, just like Percy had.

Annabeth looked beautiful in her wedding dress. Her golden curls were pinned back in some fancy up-do. She wore a diamond pendent and a bracelet with a blue stone on a black cord, but otherwise no jewelry. Even though he knew she hated make-up she was wearing a modest amount, just enough to bring out her best features.

"How'd things go in Washington?" She immediately asked "What did the Senate say?"

His expression must've given it away because then she said "Oh, not good huh?"

"Kinda the opposite of good. But let's not worry about that right now." Luke said

"Well . . . what did they say? I mean, we can't just expect them to jump on the mutant bandwagon right away but . . ."

Luke sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Couldn't these two just babble about what flavor cake they were serving?

"Well, it might've gone alright but then this one Senator, Senator Octavian I think, he made this big speech about how dangerous mutants are. He turned everyone against me. He said mutants should be registered. That way if a mutant went to apply for a job, say, the boss would know they were a mutant."

"And have total right to not give them a job on that fact alone." Annabeth concluded

"It was open to the press. I froze. I . . . I messed up. And now a bunch of mutants are gonna pay the price for it."

Annabeth took his hand in hers "Well, we just have to look at this as one bump in the road. Going public was going to have negative consequences. We knew that. But the masses would've put it together eventually anyway. At least we went to them on our own terms. It'll work itself out. It just has to."

Luke smiled. He'd been expecting her to take this a lot worse. Maybe there was an upside to telling her on her wedding day.

"Oh, hey." he held out the box Percy had given him "I just saw Percy. He wanted me to give this to you. He said it was your something new."

"Oh, God, he's kidding." she said when she opened the box. She showed it to him and inside were two silver owl earrings. Luke laughed.

"How tacky can you get for a wedding?" she remarked

"Well, at least you don't have to worry about your something blue." Luke commented

"Oh, God. Don't get me started." she said. The whole reception hall, Luke had glanced at in on his way in, was decked out in various shades of blue with just a few splashes of white here and there to break it up because Annabeth had insisted on it.

"You know, I let Seaweed Brain put together the sound track, for the reception. He wanted it to be a surprise or something. And if it never once plays 'Under the Sea' I'm going to be extremely surprised."

"You let Percy put together the whole sound track?"

"Well I had Rachel look it over and make sure there wasn't anything too appalling on there." She said "Oh, and look at this." she held out her wrist with the bracelet on it.

"Sally was just I here and said it could be my something old and something borrowed. She said Percy's father had given it to her when they were on that beach. You know she really is a sweet lady I'm glad she's going to be part of my family."

"Yeah, she is." Luke agreed "You're folks come in last weekend right?"

"Yeah." was all Annabeth said. Her relationship with her father and stepmother was . . . complicated. But Luke knew she'd be upset if they weren't there.

"Oh, hey." Annabeth said suddenly, she went to a coat that was hanging on the door behind him, fished something out of the pocket, and handed it to him. "Could you give this to Percy? I have no idea if it'll fit but it's worth a shot."

"Am I basically going to be a delivery boy between you two all day?" Luke commented

"Oh, not all day. Just for, like, the next hour." Annabeth replied "Now c'mon. Get out of my room." she pushed him through the door.

Once Luke was gone and Annabeth was by herself she took a deep breath. _'It's happening. It's really happening.'_ She thought

She went back to looking at herself in the mirror. Her dress was lacey and showed maybe a bit too much cleavage. It had selves and fit tight in the tummy. She could never believe how much of a fuss everyone made about impractical things like her make up and jewelry. It was just a wedding. Not like she was being crowned Queen of England. But for some goddamn reason, now that the day was actually here, she felt it impossible to tear herself away from the mirror and looking over every stupid dental of her face for the millionth time.

She picked up the owl earrings Luke had brought over and sighed "Aw, hell." she said and put them in.

That was when she heard the gunshots.

They were followed by screaming and sounds of panic. Annabeth immediately ran out of her room to see what was going on. She looked up and down the hall frantically, her heart pounding in her chest. She ran for the reception hall because it sounded like that's where the shots had come from. When she got there she didn't feel any better.

The whole wedding party and all the guests had been corralled together by about a dozen masked people with machine guns. Annabeth spotted bullet holes in the ceiling, apparently to scar them since Annabeth didn't see anyone dead or injured yet. Percy was in the front of the crowd, trying to ask them why they were here, what they wanted. But they didn't seem to be listening.

"You abominations think you can do whatever you want. This wedding is an outrage! We will nip your kind in the bud, not wait around for you to reproduce and come at the humans!" one of them snarled

Annabeth felt like she'd had the wind knocked out of her. These people didn't want anything, they just wanted to kill mutants.

Her mind started racing. No one had noticed her yet, there were only seven of them in headcount, maybe she could sneak up on them. If she could get one of those guns for herself, or at least make a diversion . . . Then Percy caught her eye. He didn't look as scared as the rest of them, and he gave her the tiniest shake of the head.

_No. Don't do anything stupid. Just get yourself out of here before they see you. _He seemed to be saying

But Annabeth couldn't just sit by. Who knows what these monsters would do. But then it was too late, one of the monsters looked behind themselves and noticed her standing dumbstruck in the doorway. Why hadn't she moved? She was out in the open, of course they'd see her. Stupid.

She put her hands up and cooperated as they put a gun to her back. She thought they'd lead her to the rest of the crowd but them one of them said "I guess it's a safe bet this one's the bride. Least that's one we don't have to weed out."

"You're right." said the one with a gun to here "On your knees."

Annabeth didn't say anything and knelt. The gun remover itself from her back but she knew it was still trained on her. That, and at least, three others if she tried anything.

"Witness the first of the Cleansing." one of the monsters said

Then all then there was a rattling sound from above and the fire sprinklers exploded. This distracted the monsters enough that they didn't notice when it happened again from below the piping burst and nailed two of them in the face. Annabeth took her chance and bolted for Percy.

"Grover, Rachel, get everyone out of here!" He was yelling "Luke, take Annabeth to safety!"

"What? No! I'm not leaving!"

"Annabeth please! I'll handle these losers! Just go." he shoved her into Luke who rushed her out of the hall just as the toilets exploded.

Annabeth kicked and screamed as Luke carried her back to her dressing room. Then Luke stood between her and the door and wouldn't budge to let her through. She was crying and pounding on his chest.

"Please stop it, Annabeth." he said softly. This was the first time she noticed he was crying "I don't like it either, but we owe Percy this. You know he couldn't stand it if you got hurt. My God, this is all my fault." he started to cry harder and she stopped struggling. She couldn't stand to see Luke cry, even after all the times she's seen him break down it still felt like someone closing a fist around her heart. She hugged him and they stayed quit until they heard Percy cry out in pain, followed by the sound of a huge wave crashing.

Annabeth tore past Luke and raced into the reception hall. Percy was on the floor, a pool a blood slowly seeping out from his head in a demented halo. Most of the monsters were gone, only two were left. Without even thinking about it, Annabeth grabbed a knife from one of the tables and somehow sliced one the monsters throats open. She grabbed their gun and shot the other one in the face.

She ran over to Percy and fell on her knees. She put his head in her lap and started to sob.

"Oh, Christ." Luke cursed when he saw

"Don't just stand there!" she snapped "Call an ambulance or something!"

"It's already here. I - Oh Jesus." Rachel Dare said as she came back in, Annabeth thought vaguely that she shouldn't be in here. But she really didn't care right then.

Rachel came and knelt next to them. There was a bullet hole in Percy's shirt, it was bleeding badly. Rachel put her hand over it, her face was white as a sheet. Annabeth knew Percy and Rachel used to be a couple. She'd been friends with them the whole year they were together. And even though they'd moved past that and even become great friends, she had always been a little jealous of Rachel because she knew she was Percy's 'first'. But right Annabeth was glad to have Rachel there. She was hurting, the same as Annabeth. She placed her hand on top of Rachel's and they cried together.

**(Sometime earlier that night)**

Jason was really annoyed when he got woken up from a nice nap to his cell phone ringing. He grouped around and grabbed his phone off the nightstand without opening his eyes.

"What? He mumbled into his pillow

"What up, Blue Bird?"

He groaned "Next time, I'm picking the code names, Reyna."

"No, stupid, it's not Reyna, it's -"

"Reyna, I'm tired. I really don't want to do this. Can you just tell me what's up?"

Clearly that was the wrong thing to say because he would swear he could HEAR her glaring at him, through the phone. God, how did she even do that? He decided he didn't want to know and just went along with it.

"What news, Mama Bear?" he said with a sigh. He still hadn't opened his eyes.

"I found us a nest." She said, Jason opened his eyes "Get your ass down to the Lincoln tunnel. Oh, and make sure you record the news tonight."

"Who the hell records the _news?_" She was glaring at him again. "Of course you do. Meet you down there." he hung up, looked out his window, and started

"When did the sun go down?"

**(Slightly later that night)**

Jason landed at the Lincon Tunnel in only a slightly better mood then when he woke up.

"Hey." His girlfriend Reyna kissed him hello "You ready?"

"Yeah, lets get this over with and go to bed. I'm tired."

"You woke up like fifteen minutes ago."

"What's your point?"

He wrapped his arm around her waist and flew off. They landed on some low rooftop where they could keep an eye on this random alleyway easily. according to Reyna they would be keeping tabs on who came in and out of the backdoor to a sports bar. After a certain number were inside they'd wait for an opening, and kill everyone inside. Easy.

See, Reyna could do this thing where she was totally awake 24/7. Even when she was asleep, it was not s good idea to try and sneak up on her. He knew that from experience. Jason could do that to, they'd both been trained to be on constant alert, and have reflexes that could kill someone if you weren't thinking about it. But last week one of their targets had shot him with some kind of tranquilizer dart. He'd been out in a heartbeat and spent four whole days in a sticky, drug induced sleep. If Reyna hadn't been there, he would've been killed. Then again, that wasn't really anything he wasn't used to. Reyna and he were always saving each other, it'd just become a normal part of their relationship.

But since the dart thing, he wasn't real eager to go head first into another nest of mutant haters. Monsters, as they were commonly called. The mutant community had only recently been unveiled. But in actuality there had been mutants for a long while now, wherever mutants were, there were sure to be monsters not far behind.

Their job was simple. Protect the mutant community by killing the monsters, hopefully before they went to far.

"Here." Reyna said, handing him a cup of coffee "Triple shot. We've got to wait until we know their all in there anyway. So you can either lay down and I'll wake you up when it's time to bust skulls or you can drink that and pretend to be in a good mood."

"I'm always in a good mood with you." Jason kissed her cheek and put the cup down "Plus I'm not a hundred percent sure that wouldn't kill me." he added

"I might've brewed it with a can of monster instead of water."

"Is there something you're trying to tell me here?" Jason said with mock hurt.

Reyna smiled playfully.

"So how many do you think there are total?" Jason asked

"I'm not sure but I estimate about two dozen." She replied "This place is a sports bar, lots of poker tables, people ranting. I scouted it out last night while you were asleep. For the most part it seemed harmless, just some people ranting and saying rude things, they were drunk and I could tell they wouldn't say it normally. But then there was this one booth where all the guys were sober. They ordered beer and chips and stuff to not look suspicious, but no one was drinking anything. They were all talking hush-hush and looking at news papers and watching the news on TV. They were serious. I heard one guy mention masks and bullets he was keeping at his house. I asked the bartender and he said one of the guys was his brother-in-law, he owns the shop. If they're planning anything sketchy. They'll be meeting here tonight."

Jason whistled "When do you have so much time to do research?"

"You can sleep for about as long as I can stay awake. You do the math."

They sat there for about an hour or so. Talking and playing little games to pass the time. They were used to spending a lot of time together, it just came with the job. That's probably why it was so common for partners to date. After staying up together all night so many times, it was almost impossible to not like each other.

Jason was finally starting to nods off on Reyna's shoulder when she stood up and said "Look."

Jason gazed down and saw about five monsters, all soaking wet. Running and panting down the alleyway they used a special knock on the door (Which he and Reyna had already learned) and slipped inside.

"This is it. There're two left out there. C'mon, it's the perfect opportunity." Reyna said

"Why were they all wet?"

"Maybe they fell in the river."

Jason wrapped his arm around Reyna and lowered them down to the ground. They used the special knock and someone opened the door.

"Hi." Reyna said. Then she punched him in the face.

Reyna made sure the first one was unconscious. Then they forced their way inside. Reyna pulled out her guns and Jason unsheathed his sword. Say what you will about a sword being out of date, but Jason liked them. They were a weapon that required skill. Any idiot could fire a gun but it took training, balance, timing, and bunch of other things to use a sword properly.

There were a group of about twenty people huddled around a table. Three of them talking at once.

"You didn't tell us he could use control _water."_

_" _We looked like a bunch of idiots."

"And where are Martha and Jerry? I'm worried."

"Quiet." Said the one at the head of the table. He was huge, bulging forearms, even though he could've been fifty, gray hair, and was smoking a cigar. "You all know why we do this. To protect our own. To protect our children. They are monsters, abominations, walking amongst us. We will cleanse out city!"

"Yeah, Moe, we know, but-"

"Silence." Moe said "We are in a war. We must be willing to make sacrifices."

"An interesting concept." Reyna said suddenly in front of them "But I wouldn't call it a war exactly. That implies both sides have an equal chance of winning."

She raised her arms and blew two guys heads off at the same time. At the same time Jason made his move. He came up from behind one monster, cut it's head clean off, and stabbed right through two others in one stroke.

Then the other got over their shock and made for their guns. Moe was the only was actually armed at the table. That's the thing about monsters. Once they're in their nest they assume no one could ever find them, so they let their guard down. Moe tried to shoot Reyna but she dodged and shot him in the head. Jason stabbed another one through the spinal cord before he could reach his weapon. Reyna fired another three shots, then flipped the table up and ducked behind it.

Jason stabbed one more in the kidney, before he could load it's gun, then cut off another's hand. Somehow Reyna'd gotten a knife. She threw it and it landed dead center of the forehead. Then their surprise advantage was gone. The monsters had loaded their guns and were ready to fight. Now came the fun part.

Reyna ran out from behind her table, she did a flip to make herself a harder target. When she landed, she grabbed the head of one guy and snapped it like a twig. She kick another in the face and ducked low to avoid the bullets of a third, which made it easy for her to sweep-kick their legs out from under them and slice their neck open. She fired another shot, and blew one more head off.

Jason, meanwhile, avoided getting shot the old fashioned way. By hiding behind a bar. He knew Reyna could probably take all of them out if he just let her. But then she'd have bragging rights. He HATED it when she had bragging right on him. She never shut up!

But he also knew swords at a gun fight weren't the best choice. Oh, well. Guess he'd be doing this the boring way.

He shut his eyes and focused on the air in the room. Willing it to be pushed out, like a vacuum. Everywhere except where he was. He couldn't help smirking to himself.

_"Oh, no! A guy who can control water!"_These guys were such ametures. A guy who controls water has exactly jack on a guy who can control freaking air.

He had to be careful not to overdo it and leave enough air for them to survive. Reyna was out there, after all. He just needed them to lose enough that they couldn't think clearly or fight properly. Reyna would be fine, she'd been trained to fight in conditions with low oxygen. Just so long as he was careful. But it was always difficult to be careful when he pulled this trick. It came from all his anger, hate, bitterness, the worst parts of himself. The parts that made him want to snuff these monsters out.

He jumped over the bar. It was like taking candy from a baby. One monster fell after another until only one was left. Jason was about to run him through when he heard Reyna gasping.

"Jason, enough." she chocked, falling to her knees

Immediately, he felt all of the anger and bitterness fall away. All the negativeness he'd been using to fuel this vacuum evaporated. He'd gone too far. He'd lost control. He'd hurt her. He went and helped her stand.

"I'm so sorry. Are you alright?"

She slapped him across the face. She was alright.

"I hate it when you do that!" she said, her voice was horse. She started coughing.

"I know, I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't. I -"

"Remarkable." said the one monster left alive. An older man in his sixties with thin gray hair and round spectacles "You creatures . . . feel remorse? Affection?"

Jason raised an eyebrow "Don't you?"

"What did your friends do? Why were they all shaken up?" Reyna asked

The old guy looked like he was gonna say something. But then the light went out in his eyes, and he fell, dead.

"Crap, I did overdo it." Jason said

"It's alright. This group wasn't a real threat to begin with." Reyna said "You take care of the bodies, I'll see if I can figure it out."

"I hate taking care of the bodies." Jason mumbled but he got on with it

About fifteen minutes later he came back "Alright, give me the word and the whole place'll be up in smoke."

"I think I found what they were up to." Reyna said, she handed him a newspaper circled in red marker was a wedding announcement there was a picture of a good looking couple and some information about them.

"We were too late. It was today." Reyna said

"Ah, shit." Jason cursed "They hit a wedding? They call us inhumane."

"Let's get out of here." Reyna said. Jason put his arm around her shoulders and they walled away. Just before they walled through the doorway, Jason snapped his fingers and little sparks of electricity flew from his fingertips. As soon as they hit the floor they ignited the alcohol trail Jason had made and the bar went up in flames.

**(Late at night, in the ER)**

"Well, how bad is it?" Annabeth asked the doctor

"It was touch and go for a bit there. But he seems to have stabilized. However there's just no telling when he'll wake up. I'm sorry." he didn't look sorry. He looked like he'd seen too many sob stories to really care at this point.

"Thank you, let me know if something changes."

The doctor left and everyone just sat in silence. Then Rachel popped her head in.

"The vultures are here. They're looking for an interview." she said

"Tell them to go fuck themselves." Annabeth responded

"Annabeth." Sally said in her famous 'Mom Voice' "I'll go and talk to them." She got up, Annabeth realized she was still in her blue 'mother of the groom' dress. Then she realized Rachel was still wearing her white bridesmaids dress, no one had bothered to change. Suddenly she felt a little more hallow.

After they'd been gone for a few minutes Grover said "Annabeth, you should eat something."

"I don't want to leave. Not yet. I mean, in case he wakes up." she knew she was just kidding herself. But she wasn't ready to go just yet.

"That's okay. I'll, uh, get a whole bunch of food and bring it back here."

Annabeth still didn't want to eat but she nodded "Thanks, Grover."

He nodded and added "You, uh, you won't do anything rash, will you?" Annabeth shook her head no and he walked out, using his crutches to hide his hoofs.

Luke was still recounting the story to the cops. (God, what could take that long? What was so hard to understand about a hate crime?) So Annabeth was left alone with her twenty three year old fiancé's comatosed body.

_(FLASHBACK) _

_Everything was black. _

_"Alright a tiny bit to the right." Percy was saying in her ear "Good now go forward. A little more. NO NOT THAT MUCH! Okay, it's okay, you're alright. Now go left. No, left. LEFT! And now you're dead. Way to go Annabeth."_

_"This really should not be that hard." Annabeth commented_

_"No, but apparently you don't understand directions."_

_"Hey, you've died too." _

_"Yes, but I made it further then you." He retorted_

_"Because you've played this game like a million times!" _

_"True enough, true enough."_

_Annabeth put down the game controlled and took off her blindfold. "God, when you said wanted to blindfold me I had such higher hopes then a videogame." she retorted__Percy smiled, blushing. _

_"Wait a second." she said, looking at the screen "Is that where I was when I died?" _

_"Yeah, what about it?"_

_"That bridge goes right." _

_"What?" _

_"That's right."_

_"No, that's left." _

_"It's right."_

_"Left."_

_"Right."_

_"That is defiantly left!"_

_"No, here I'll prove it." She said "See, if this is the hand I right with, then this is my right hand. And see how it goes out in the same direction the bridge goes? It's right."_

_Percy was silent for a bit, then he tilted his head and just said "Huh, how 'bout that."_

_"Remind me to never let you drive me anywhere." Annabeth said_

_"Oh, it's the stupid dyslexia. I get them mixed up sometimes." _

_"Don't you think you should've thought about that before you decided to try and blind lead me through a videogame level?"_

_"Okay, maybe. But you gotta admit I put the 'sexy' in 'dyslexia'." Then he was quiet for a bit before he went "No, wait, that's not right."_

_Annabeth burst out laughing "My god, your head is full of kelp!"_

_"Well, you better learn to live with it, Wise Girl. You're gonna be stuck with this idiot for the rest of your life." he kissed her "I'm gonna marry you if it's the death of me."_

Oh, God.

Somehow she had ended up in the bathroom. She hadn't looked in a mirror since she'd put the owl earrings in that morning. She hadn't even realized she was still wearing her wedding dress. Her beautiful, impractical, white wedding dress that was now stained with drying blood. On her abdomen and thighs where she'd put Percy's bleeding head.

Oh, God. She bent over the sink and vomited.

When she was finished she felt dizzy. Maybe she should've eaten something. She sat down against the bathroom wall and started to cry. She felt so SICK of crying. All she'd done all day was cry, but she couldn't stop herself. If Percy didn't make it . . . No. She couldn't afford to think like that. Percy would wake up, there was no other option.

Annabeth stood up. She washed the make-up off her face. She unlined her hair (Which was already disheveled with strands flying everywhere) Then she unzipped her blood-stained wedding dress and let it fall on the floor. She picked it up, threw it over her arm and carried it around as she walked down the hall in nothing but her bra and panties. She found shelf full of hospitoal gowns and put one on. Then she went down to the hospital gift shop (Why do hospitals even have gift shops? Like, _Hope you enjoyed the tumor! Please, come again! ) _and bought herself a shirt, pajama pants, to wear and a backpack, which she put her wedding dress in.

When she got back, Percy still hadn't woken up.

However, there was a new blond figure sitting next to him.

"Luke when did you get here?"

"Just now."

"Things go alright with the police?"

"About as well as you'd expect." he said "Annabeth, you know he's gonna wake up, right?"

" 'Course he is. He wouldn't actually die unless it was over something really stupid." Annabeth said

"I hate this." Luke spat

"Yeah, well join the club."

"First Thalia and now Percy. Just . . . who's next?"

Annabeth didn't say anything

"I'm sorry, I guess I shouldn't be bitching about my feelings when you're. . . Well I guess you're pretty upset."

"Oh, no. Upset dose 't begin to cover what I am right now. I don't think there's a word that covers what I am right now. But I'm not gonna waste it whining about how much this hurts. I'm going to utilize it. Use it. Get some shit done."

Luke looked at her like she was a little girl who'd just realized Santa wasn't real.

"We tried playing by their rules and just look where that got us." She continued "We can't just sit around and wait for things to get better when they won't. Not without a good push."

"What're you thinking." Luke said

"How do you feel about doing some recruiting?"

He gave her a smile like _There's my girl._

**(Really late at night)**

"Oh, hey. Did you record the news like I asked?" Reyna asked

"I still don't get it. But, yeah, I did."

"Shh shh shh, Just watch." she fast forwarded to a report coming in from Washington.

"In other news, the US senate has recently heard a shocking realization that the long rumored existence of a sub-division of the human race, called 'mutants' are, in fact, real. A young man by the name of Luke Callestine approached the senate and gave a presentation about mutants being the next phase in human evolution. With super-human abilities that differ in every case the public seems unsure of how to approach this new chapter in mankind's history. But one man has absolutely no doubt in his mind as to how the mutant issue should be dealt with. And that is Senator Octavian. He has called every member of the mutant community to be registered, with files explaining what power and what dangers they might have, completely open to the public. He has dubbed it, the Mutant Registration Act. Public and political support is quickly growing for the MRA And it's safe to assume Senator Octavian will be taking a leading role in humanity's fight for protection against these menaces."

"So we're public now." Jason concluded "Kind of a game changer, isn't it?"

"No, not really. We knew this was coming It's more of a game starter." Reyna observed "Moe was right. There is a war coming. There's just two thing left to decide: When it's going to start. And what side your on."

"Not much of a decision then," Jason said

"No, I guess not." Reyna said as she snuggled into him.

* * *

><p><strong>So . . . yeah, there you go. I feel like I could've handled Jason and Reyna's into's better and I know I'm not the best and fight writing yet. But I hope to improve as I write this. <strong>

**As always, I ask that you review letting me know what you thought and I will respond in my updates!**


	2. Bedrock

**(****Roughly four months from when we left off)**

_What the hell am I even doing in prison?_ Piper thought to herself _I didn't do anything._

Yet, here she was, wearing an obnoxious orange jumpsuit and staring at the gruel that was supposed to be her lunch in Bedrock.

Bedrock was the first of many new prisons specifically designed to house mutants. This place was all over the news a few weeks ago. Senator Octavian had called out for mutant registration, dubbing them monsters. Unfortunately, Senator Octavian was a powerful public speaker and he'd gotten his way. Thanks to over-funding from the government and never-ending support from the public it had been build in only three months, even with several sabotage attacks on construction. Some terrorist group the press had dubbed 'The Brotherhood' had done anything they could to stall construction. But the news stations used them as an example of why the Bedrock needed to be completed, which led to more funding and more support. In the long run, the Brotherhood had probably done more harm then good. When Piper had been arrested, Senator Octavian was announcing a plan for more prisons, and it seemed to go over well with the public.

Senator Octavian had even created a new faction for the military. The Mutant Response Division, or MRD it was called. They were in charge of all things mutant. They were judge, jury, and executioner, unlimited power as far as it concerned mutants. It'd been the MRD that'd showed up in Piper's apartment in the middle of the night, forced her to the ground, cuffed her, slapped a collar on her neck, and shoved her ass in here. They also patrolled the prison as guards, they wore what looked like SWAT team uniforms with tinted helmets so you could never tell one from another. The only difference was a white ID number on their backs.

As Piper walked in the lunchroom a group of boys started whooping at her.

"Damn, look at you."

"Don't you look foxy today, sweetheart."

"You ought to smile, someone's complimenting you!"

She ignored them. Ugh, getting cat-called in a fucking prison, could her life suck any more right now? She sat down at an empty table, rested her head in her forearms, and tried to ignore the world.

But apparently the world didn't want to be ignored because just then she heard someone sit down at her table and start talking to her.

"Look, I'll make this short cause I know you don't wanna hear it. But if you go along with them they'll probably leave you alone."

Piper raised her head. She recognized the skinny Latino guy sitting across from her. He'd been sitting at the table of cat-callers, but he was the only one who ignored her and kept his eyes on his food, like he was ashamed to be seen with those idiots. His name was Leo something-or-other he hung around with some huge muscle-bound dudes. Even though they could probably use his as a toothpick, they seemed to keep him around because he cracked jokes all the time. It defiantly wasn't because he looked intimidating. With maybe four pounds of muscle on him, an impish grin, pointy, elfish ears, and a general face that could've been sixteen (complete with poorly-grown stubble) the most intimidating thing about Leo was how much energy he had. The dude couldn't keep still even if you paid him to.

Maybe that's why Piper felt free enough to speak her mind "Why the fuck would I want to pretend I _enjoy _being sexually harassed?"

"Because it's better to be harassed then assaulted." Leo shot back quickly "Look, Zeethos _just _said he was thinking about raping you if you couldn't learn to take a compliment. And trust me, Beauty Queen, he ca_n absolutely _do that to you. The guards don't give a flying fuck what we do to _each other _. So long as at the end of the day we're in our cages."

Piper felt taken aback. Yesterday she wouldn't've thought it was possible for Leo to sound so dead serious

"Look, I can make them back off if I need to. I'm a mutant after all."

Leo smiled like _wow you're an idiot _"What do you think these collars around our necks are for? New fashion trend? Did I miss an issue of 'Vogue'?"

"You don't have to be rude."

"Then make me stop. Like how you'd make them stop. Use your powers, see if I'm wrong."

Piper didn't want to get agitated. She knew she was playing into this guys hands. But she just wanted to be left alone and she snapped "Leave me-Argh!" a painful electric shock traveled down her body. It was so bad she almost passed out.

"Prisoner number 401372. That is your first warning. Do not attempt to use your mutation again or we will be forced to use excessive force." A monotonous voice boomed over the loudspeaker

"What was that? A slap on the wrist?" She muttered as the spots in her eyes died down

"In here, yeah. Didn't you hear? We're mutants. Technically we're not humans so the guards don't have to treat us like humans." Leo said "The collars measure our vital signs and biochemical activity and stuff like that. It alerts the guards if anyone's using their powers. Step out of line and ZAP! You get a couple volts down your neck."

"So why'd you have me do it?" Piper snapped

"Because your an idiot. This is your first time in the slammer, isn't it?"

"Yeah. You know what? It is. Cause I didn't do anything fucking wrong. The MRD just showed up in my apartment one night and decided I had done something. They said something about using my power to influence my clients or some bull like that. I didn't even know I was a mutant before they showed up!" Piper's voice had gotten louder as she talked and she just realized that people were staring. She turned her attention back to her food.

Leo picked up his bread and bit into it "So what do you do?"

"I just told you, nothing."

"No, not what _did _you do. What _do _you do? What's your power?"

Piper sighed, she turned her spoon in her soup slowly "I'm still not really sure. I think hyper-suasion. You know, where I can basically talk you into anything. But there's something else, I'm not entirely sure what it is. It's like, sometimes, I can tell what people are feeling. And I don't just mean if they're happy or sad or anything like that but like a full spectrum analysis of what's wrong with them."

Leo stopped chewing. His eyes got a little wide and Piper didn't need her powers to know she'd freaked him.

"It's crazy inconsistent, though." she assured him "I've got no idea what makes it happen when it does."

Leo was quiet for a minute, then he just said "Can I have your mozzarella sticks?"

"Go ahead." She gave them to him "What about you? Your super-annoying?"

Leo's smile was a combination of devil, mischievous, and painfully sad "Nah, I'm a little more . . . flamboyant then that let's say."

Not exactly what Piper's been hoping for, but she could tell talking about his powers was painful for Leo, (Was her other power working again?) so she changed the subject "And you mentioned this being my first time in the slammer. Like, this wasn't yours. What's the story behind that?"

Leo shrugged "I was fresh out of the system. Needed some fast cash for rent. So I fell in with what you might call 'the wrong crowd' and started dealing. It wasn't anything crazy. I mean, I wasn't using or anything. But we got caught, I served eighteen months and I learned the ropes. Right now, that screw-up is gonna help me survive in here." he explained, then added "I could help you, if you'd like."

Piper thought it over "What do you want?" she asked

"What? Nothing."

"Oh, come on." she replied "I know how deals like this work, no one actually ever just helps someone out of the goodness of their heart. They're after publicity, or a better conscience, usually it's because they want you to owe them. That was you can make 'em do stuff for you. What do you want?"

Leo held up his hands like 'Whoa, chill' "I . . . honestly just thought you were an idiot who could use some help. Look, I've been living amongst low-life's since I was eight. I know how to survive them. I crack jokes, make them like me. Even the worse gangsters will keep a clown around for laughs." he explained "But you, Beauty Queen? You've got your looks. And trust me, you can make them work for you."

"And how exactly do I do that without letting someone, i.e. you, pimp me out?"

"Ah, now we get to playing the system. Whaddaya say, we got a deal?"

"Deal." She shook his hand "My name's Piper, by the way, Piper McLean."

"Leo Valdez. Nice to meet you." he smiled "So, class is in session. First things first, do you smoke?"

"Um, no."

"Good then you won't be tempted." he handed her a pack "Hang on to those. In here, cigarettes are the currency. You'd be surprised what people will give you for a fix. Lots of addicts take up smoking cigarette to try and fill the hole when the state cuts off their supply. They're about as good as real cash in here. Oh, and by the way, this is a one-time-only loan. If you can, write to whoever's waiting for you on the outside and ask them to send you some."

Piper tried to imagine her dad's reaction of she wrote asking for a shipment of cigarettes. But it made her too sad to think about her dad so she pushed it away "Do you smoke?"

"God no. That crap'll mess you up." Leo said "I won those in a poker game the other night. Which reminds me, point numero dos: if cigarettes are the currency, poker games are the shopping center. No one has any real money so we bid whatever we got. One time I saw a girl bid a box of Motrin for blueberry muffins. It was awesome. Do you know how to play?"

Piper cracked a smile "Oh yeah, I can play."

"Well then, there's something you can use." Leo said between bites of his sandwich, he held up three fingers "And numero tres: pick you battles."

He pointed his chin towards the table he'd been sitting at before, which was now having a belching contest.

"See that big guy with the chipped tooth sitting next to Zeethos? That's his brother Cal." Leo continued "The guys dumb as a stack of bricks but he'll do whatever his brother tells him to. Back when they were on the outside Zeethos used Cal as his personal muscle to beat money out of people. I think they were in the mafia but I'm not sure. And that girl over there? Clarisse?" he pointed to another end of the room "She's got bulletproof skin and a nasty temper. Some people say she's got super strength too, but no one knows if it's mutation or she's just on steroids. Some of the people in here could beat your ass seven ways to Sunday without batting an eye."

"They're usually the ones the MRD got right. You weren't the only one falsely imprisoned, trust me. And then we've got no structure to the prisons yet. Senator Octavian needed to prove his point so the MRD just filled in Bed Rock with as many 'criminals' " he made air quotes with his fingers "As they could find. You've got petty thieves mixed with murderers. But the point is, the ones that can hurt you, they're the ones at the top of the food chain. The ones to keep happy. The ones to bribe."

"Bribery?" Piper asked "Is that right?"

Leo threw his head back and laughed like she'd said something hilarious "Look around you, Piper. How much of this is _right?_I'm looking to survive, not start a church." He had a point. She was sitting in a fucking prison for essentially the crime of talking getting tips on how to avoid getting raped and beaten. Maybe now wasn't the time to act self-righteous.

"Alright, so not right, but smart." She said

"No you're getting it." Leo smiled

Just then the bell rang and the gaurds who'd been standing around the perimeter of the room the whole time started to coral everyone to their cells or wherever they were going.

"Guess we'll pick up tomorrow. I hope you were taking notes." Leo said turning to leave

"Oh, wait." Piper grabbed his arm before he could walk away "Before you go I gotta ask. What did you do? To get locked up I mean."

Leo's face hardened, his jaw set, and he clenched his fists. Maybe it was going out on a limb, but Piper was going to guess she's struck a nerve.

"They said I killed someone." he said evenly

"Did you?

This time it was subtler, if Piper hadn't been who she was she might've missed it. But she saw (well, more felt then saw, really) Leo fill with so much sadness and pain. She saw a little energetic kid that got ripped from his innocence way to younger and shoved into the harshness of reality without so much as a second thought. She saw someone who'd faced one heartbreak, one painful loss after another and grown almost accustomed to how much it hurt, but never would. She saw his loneliness, his bitterness, and his fear. He'd always been given the short end of things in life but it didn't matter because he'd walked on and _survived. _

Leo shook his head and said, so softly she might've missed it in the commotion, "No."

And Piper believed him. But she also knew he wasn't telling the whole truth.

Ugh, sometimes she hated her powers. Actually, it wasn't even sometimes, she hated her powers. She hated being a mutant. Period.

* * *

><p>That's it. Spill." Reyna said plainly<p>

"What?" Jason said as he slid his contacts off and pit on his gold-rimmed glasses

"What's been going on with you lately? You've seemed . . . distant." Reyna had let her hair out of it's usual braid and let if fall down to her waist. She wore sweats and a T-shirt.

"What makes you say that?"

"Do you honestly think I can't tell when something's eating at you, Sparkles?"

"Why did I ever allow you to start calling me 'Sparkles' in the first place? Is there any way we can not have that be a thing?"

"Aw, isn't that cute. He thinks he's getting out of this." Reyna said like she was talking about a kitten "Talk, Grace."

Jason didn't say anything for a bit, so Reyna added "Look, we both know I have less fun ways of making you tell me. I'll let you chose."

Jason sighted "How long have I know you now Reyna? Six years right?"

"Almost seven."

"Right. And in all that time, how many times have you heard me talk about my family." he sat down on the couch

"Twice." Reyna tried to keep a straight face.

Jason didn't look at her, his blue eyes were somewhere else "Well see there's good reason for that."

_Finnally! _Reyna thought to herself _Now we're getting somewhere with this piece of foof._ She'd been curious about Jason's origins since the first. But out of respect to his privacy she'd never prodded him about it. She knew from experience how painful some childhoods could be and the want not to talk about them. Still, she'd always felt a little separated from him because of this. The fact that he was finally opening up to her about his childhood made her feel closer to him. Like they'd finally crossed some unseen bridge. She went to sit down next to him.

"I know you heard by now how I was abandoned when I was a kid on a playground. I was seven years old and . . . " He trailed off, he spread his hands helplessly,

Reyna put a reassuring hand on his arm "It's alright," she said softly, worried she'd spook him somehow "Go on."

Jason look at her and smiled softly. He was quiet for a bit, like he was trying to find the words, then suddenly he said "I always thought it was because of . . . well, you know, me being what I am . . . I thought I was scaring them. I never particularly blamed them, I guess. I mean, every time I got a head cold we lost power. Who wouldn't be scared?"

He was quiet for a second. They both knew they were thinning the same thing but neither one wanted to say it out loud. The monsters they killed . . . were they really so different from how Jason described his family? They were just people after all. Cruel, rash, and selfish maybe. But they were, for the most part, just acting out of fear, when it boiled down to it. Should you really blame someone for acting out of fear? Not to mention kill them for it. But if they got to talking about that, they'd be up all night.

"But there's always been something that bothered me." Jason went on "I had a sister, see. Thalia. My mom wasn't really . . . stable I guess you'd say. She was a TV actress, she was a real heavy drinker, always doing publicity stunts, she could never get enough attention. So, Thalia, who was seven years older then me, ended up taking care of me most of the time. Now, I'm gonna tell you a secret. You have to promise not to tell anyone."

"I swear." Reyna said

Jason looked down at his hands and took a deep breath "To tell you the truth, Reyna, I can't even remember my mother's face. I mean, I've seen pictures and stuff. I know _what _she looked like. But whenever I try to _remember _her face . . . I can't do it. Thalia's is the only one I can imagine."

_But why now? _said a voice in Reyna's head _Why are you bringing this up now? _

"When I was a kid, after they took me away and I came to Wolf House, I used to remember, or, well, I thought I remembered, times when Thalia would get upset and . . . and you could see arcs of electricity go up her arms, like it does with mine! As I got older, I told myself they were just my imagination. She was just a normal person. Who left me at a playground."

"Jason?" Reyna interjected "Where is this coming from?"

Jason smiled a sad sort of smile "You know how I was supposed to talk to that Annabeth girl and Luke what's-his-face the other day because they've been sabotaging the mutant prisons and it didn't go very well?"

"Yeah, what about them?"

"Well when I went to see Annabeth, she was visiting her fiancé Percy in the hospital. He's been in a coma for a few months now and anyway in the bed next to his . . . is Thalia."

"What?"

"Eventually Annabeth noticed I kept looking at her and started telling me about her. Apparently they were friends before Talia want under. And from what she told me Thalia was a real mutant activist. They would go and find young mutants who were being hurt and not leave until they were sure they'd be alright. My sister. And then Annabeth mentioned something else. I don't think I imagined that electricity. I think she was like me."

"Wow, now that's something." Reyna remarked

"Now I just don't know what to think." Jason said "I mean, why would she be scared of me? Why didn't she take me with her when she ran away? Did I do something wrong? I'm so confused! I just . . ." Jason hung his head and signed and hung his head, defeated by his own personal baggage. Reyna took his hand a squeezed it

"What do I do?" he asked aloud

Reyna smiled weakly "I wish I could tell you." she said "But what you do know has to be your decision. I'm not going to give you an easy answer." She squeezed his hand tight again "But you know whatever happens, I'm here for you, right?"

Jason smiled "Yeah I know Rey." he said "But that doesn't make this any easier."

Reyna hugged him. "It's not supposed to be easy. It's family." she said in his ear

"I guess I wouldn't know." Jason said

They broke apart and were quiet for a while, then Reyna said "Jason?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For telling me, I mean."

Jason didn't say anything. He just grabbed the remote, turned on the TV, and rested his head on her shoulder as they watched in silence.

* * *

><p><strong>So, there yah go.<strong>

**I feel like Leo's come across as more serious then he usually is, but I'll fix that when we see them again. I feel like I'm torn between trying to make Leo a more gritty version of himself and moving him crack jokes all the time. You have to remember that Leo's seen some shot in his life. It would surprise me absolutely zero to learn he'd done a few B&E's or stolen a car when he was on the run. And in TLH he mentions hanging around with gangsters. **

**In honesty I feel like Piper probably would've known about the collars or not have been so easily baited by Leo(or why Leo particularly wanted to bait her into getting electrocuted) but it felt like I needed a moment to illustrate the guards brutality. **


	3. And So The Game Begins

**Okay, this chapter gave me more then a little trouble. But I'm pretty happy with how it came out. If you're one of my followers, I added a new scene to the last chapter. Because I tried to fit it in here but it felt a little out of place. It's not critical but you might want to read it. **

**Also YAY! Frank's here! **

* * *

><p><strong>(An undecided amount of time from when we left off)<strong>

"Alright so, important question." Piper said to Leo as she sat down with her breakfast.

"Yeah?" Leo said. He had a black eye and his lip was swollen from last night.

He was always scribbling plans for some invention or making notes about mechanics or something like that on paper towles. If Piper tried to look at his notes it went straight over her head but generally looked intelligent. The guards took them away all the time, usually with a beating for good measure, but Leo didn't seem to get discouraged.

"You just can't contain this genius." was how he put it

She'd taken Leo's advice and started flirting back with the boys. Meanwhile Leo spread a rumor she had herpes, amongst other things, to keep them off her back. (Or rather, to keep her off hers) It seemed to work, so far.

"So you're trapped on a desert island with a group of people." Piper said "One of said people is a really, really muscular dude. Like, three hundred pounds of pure muscle. Do you A) Kill them first to eat their flesh because it would last forever."

"Whoa, that where I expected this to go." Leo commented, Piper just kept going

"B) Use them to protect yourself from other threats on the island and hunt and stuff or C) form an alliance with them to eat all the other people first."

Leo made a face, like he was thinking really hard, then said "Can't decide. Too many undecided variables."

"Like what?"

"How many other people are in my group? What are our food options? Would I have to eat all of him at once or do I have the means to make human jerky?"

"Human jerky?"

"Oh yeah, I'm just doing my thing, making a way off that island, and I'm just snaking on some nice human jerky! oh nom nom nom." he rubbed his belly with a look of great approval

Piper stifled a laugh "We probably shouldn't be joking about cannibalism."

"You're the one that brought it up." Leo commented "And you're the vegetarian."

"Well, when I can afford to be." Piper was getting better at stomaching prison food. But sometimes it was just so bad she couldn't and was left so hungry she didn't have a choice but to eat meat her next meal. Should that worry her? Probably.

Piper and Leo looked surveying at each others breakfasts. Piper had oatmeal, Leo had scrambled eggs. They exchanged a quick glance before silently switching trays.

"So, my turn." Leo took his milk back from his tray, handing Piper back her coffee. Surprisingly, he didn't like coffee. Which, in all honesty, made his never-ending supply of energy all the more terrifying. "What did the virgin say after her first BJ?" he casually took a sip of milk.

"What?"

"I love you." Milk spilled out of his mouth and down his chin. Piper's laugh was so loud people at nearby tables stopped talking. She clapped her hands like a dumb seal.

* * *

><p><em>"Now from his breast into the eyes the ache<em>  
><em>of longing mounted, and he wept at last,<em>  
><em>his dear wife, clear and faithful, in his arms, <em>  
><em>longed for as the sunwarmed earth is longed for by a swimmer<em>  
><em>spent in rough water where his ship went down<em>  
><em>under Poseidon's blows, gale winds and tons of sea.<em>  
><em>Few men can keep alive through a big serf<em>  
><em>to crawl, clotted with brine, on kindly beaches<em>  
><em>in joy, in joy, knowing the abyss behind:<em>  
><em>and so she too rejoiced, her gaze upon her husband,<em>  
><em>her white arms round him pressed as though forever."<em>

Annabeth read aloud from _The Odyssey. _

"Well that's all good and lovely, but is he planning to tell her how many women he slept with while he was away?" Luke said from the doorway

"Oh hey. What are you doing here?" She said

"Gee, what am I doing in a hospital room where two of my best friends are comatose?" Luke came in and sat down next to Thalia

"Sorry, stupid question." Annabeth pushed her hair behind her ear

"Shouldn't you be at work?" Luke said

"I came during my lunchbreak. Since I know tonight's going to be a little hectic I thought I'd come visit them now. Besides I've got enough plans ready to mean I don't have to work for a month."

"Good." Luke said,

Nowadays Annabeth spent most of her free time working. She'd cranked out more designs for buildings then Luke could believe.

"You've got it, right?" Annabeth asked

"Oh yeah," Luke said in a tone that said _uh, duh, course I do! _He took out his wallet and pulled out a white ID card "That Jason guy was too easy. The way he kept staring at Thalia I probably could've taken the whole wallet and he wouldn't've noticed."

"Yeah I didn't like that." Annabeth said

"You didn't like anything about him." Luke said

"And you did?" Annaneth posed

Luke smiled in an _Oh come on!_ way

"Whatever, we've got what we need to pull this off. That's what matters." Annabeth said

"Yeah, you're right."

"Course I am. Have you met me? I'm always right."

"Yes, and it gets so annoying."

"Shut up." Annabeth said with a smile. Luke leaned over and grabbed her hand

"Listen, I think you should go home and get some sleep. Don't worry about work or anything, just get some rest." he said "Your right, as usual. Tonight's going to be hard, for all of us, better to get some rest now. Besides I now you haven't been sleeping well."

Neither had he, but he didn't mention that. He knew Annabeth would worry and he hated to make her upset.

"Maybe you're right." Annabeth said

"Course I am." Luke kissed her forehead "Go on."

Annabeth smiled, if a little sadly. "Alright, fine." she got up, but before she left she took Percy's hand. "Wake up soon, alright? I love you." she kissed his forehead and walled away.

Luke tried not to feel sorry for her. She wanted so much to believe Percy would wake up any day now and everything would be alright. They'd finish the wedding and live happily ever after. God, she could be such a child sometimes. If Thalia hadn't woken up yet why should he? That was hardly fair.

He studied the ID card he'd lifted off Jason. It'd bothered him more then a little the way he'd looked at Thalia. It was like he'd seen a ghost.

"What the hell did you want with Thalia anyway?" he asked Jason's picture, his mind working like a steam forge **(I couldn't think of anything better, I'm sorry. -DG)**

* * *

><p>"Okay, I'll bite," Piper said "What are you doing?"<p>

"You'll see." Leo responded

"To be fair that is my watch, I'm entitled to know what the fuck your doing to it."

"To be fair, it's not yours. You won it last night in a poker game."

"And do you know how expensive that was? I could've gotten something useful. Like a better pillow, or baked goods. This better be some quality shit, Valdez."

"Relax, Pipes, only the highest grade of shit for you."

Wait, is that a good thing? Piper thought Whatever. They were sitting in the library, where they were allowed two hours of independent reading a day. Of course people tended to do whatever they wanted during those two hours.

"Alright and I need one more thing before it's complete." Piper prepared to groan "You got that Mix CD from your Dad last week right?"

"What could you possibly want to do with my CD?"

"Just trust me?"

Piper sighed and handed it over. Leo gave her a wink and fitted it into place. Then he made her shut her eyes. She begrudgingly obliged and tried not to react when she felt him put something in her ears.

Then:

_Baby, I'm preying on you tonight  
>Hunt you down eat you alive<br>Just like animals, animals, like animals-mals_

_Maybe you think that you can hide_  
><em>I can smell your scent for miles<em>  
><em>Just like animals, animals, like animals-mals<em>

Leo smiled like a kid on Christmas when her face lit up.

"You made a tucking CD player? How? Literally how? That started off as a digital watch, a laser pointer, and a calculator!"

Leo shrugged "If I explained it to you, it'd probably go over your head." he said casually, but Piper knew he was beaming with pride

"Alright, true enough. Here." She took out on of the buds and they rocked out together to her songs

* * *

><p>Most people hate their jobs, but not Frank. Franks loathed his job with the passion of a thousand white suns.<p>

Two months ago, Frank had been sent undercover to pose as a member of the MRD. He'd been assigned to work as a guard at Bedrock Prison. The problem was, he was a mutant himself. Frank had to go through every day seeing his co-workers brutally beat the prisoners to 'keep them in line'. Usually, the ones getting hurt hadn't done anything that bad, but the higher-ups in the MRD were always encouraging them to use excessive force, so the mutants wouldn't try anything. The truth was, the MRD's special collars were a fake. They didn't monitor anything and no one knew what might cause their powers, so they used brutality to instill fear in the prisoners and hoped that would work.

Frank thanked his lucky stars everyday for the tinted helmate he had to wear. It made it easier for him to hide his shame.

_"Make sure you're careful." Hazel had told him before he left "One slip up and they'll throw you in there with the rest of them. And somehow I doubt they'd throw you a welcoming party after some of the things you did to them."_

_"I know." Frank assured her "God I hate this. The whole thing's messed up."_

_"That's why you gotta, Frank. We need to stop this before it gets too out of hand." She reminded him "I don't . . . I don't want this to be like last time-with the camps and the Germans."_

_That was the thing about Hazel, she was so cheerful and sweet you'd almost forget she was a WWII veteran. The fact that she was nineteen didn't help that much._

_Not even thinking about it, Frank took her hand in his "Are you going to be okay? I mean, I know you've been doing good adjusting to the twenty-first century and all. But-I don't like leaving you alone."_

_Hazel looked at him with her golden eyes and smiled. That sort of smile only Hazel Levesque could do that warmed your heart while softly reminded you you were an idiot. _

_"Just take care of yourself and I'll be fine."_

God he missed Hazel.

When the Wolf House found her, chronologically frozen in an iceberg off the cost of Alaska, Frank wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. But when he'd been assignee to rehabilitate her to the twenty-first century, Frank soon struck up a close friendship with Hazel. She had this way of being optimistic about things without being blind to the problem, or making it less then it was. She was always patient with people and tried to be understanding and she got this cute look of awe on her face when you showed her a computer.

He wished she was here now. She'd probably love staring at a bunch of computer screens surveying the prisoners all night.

Then the screen flashed onto one particular cell of that one particular prisoner Frank's been keeping an eye on and his mood soured even more.

He turned on his com "Hey could someone go quiet down Valdez? He's at it again."

"Again? Can't this loser take a hint?" someone replied

"Whatever, just go shut it up." someone else said

_It?_ Frank thought

"I'm just saying, we kick the crap out of these freaks all the time. Can't they just accept it?" said the first

"You know I heard the higher-up's are thinking about finding a way to cut off their mail privileges. Personally I'm for it."

"Isn't that inhumane?" Frank said "I mean we've already taken away visitor rites."

One of them snorted "Inhumane? What do you think these freaks are? They're not natural. They should be happy with whatever we give them."

"Just go check on him." Frank said, trying to keep calm

He signed off and it wasn't quiet for a full second before he heard his phone ringing. Which wouldn't have bothered him except this wasn't really _his phone _it was a specific phone the Wolf House had given him before he left in case they ever needed to contact him. And they'd never contacted him before.

"Hello?"

"Zhang, we've got new orders for you." Frank relaxed a bit when he heard the voice on the other end. It was Jason, he was one of Frank's many higher-up's at Wolf House, he was usually a good guy to talk to and he was pretty understanding if something wasn't going right. But Frank was also a little confused. Since Jason was so much higher then Frank most of his work was classified but as far as Frank could tell he had nothing to do with the Bedrock project. Why was he calling him?

His confusion didn't go away as Jason kept talking. He explained a new set of orders and laid out plainly what he was to do but this plan made no sense. Why would the Wolf House order this? It didn't seem to benefit them at all, it made no sense.

Frank wasn't usually one to question his superiors, but when Jason was done he couldn't help but ask "Um, sir, why would Wolf House order this? I mean, what are they hoping to achieve?"

The was a moments pause, then Jason's voice responded "Are you questioning me, Zhang?"

For a crazy second Frank considered answering 'Yes, this sounds more then a little crazy.' but he ended up saying "No, sir." and hung up

Frank signed and ran a hand through his short black hair. This was gonna be a long night. He reached for his com. "Actually, change of plan, bring Valdez in here I wanna talk to him myself."

"You want to _talk _to one of these things? Why?" someone responded

"Just bring him in here!" he snapped

"Okay, okay." the person mumbled before signing off.

He got up and ruffled through the filing cabinet, looking for Leo Valdez's file. He took it out and looked through some of the papers in it. There was all the usual things the government used to profile criminals: school records, arrest reports, family background, things like that. But Leo also had photocopies of all the semantics and notes he was always working on. The MRD tried to keep a lid on this guy. But they always made sure to copy his work, in case he might be useful to them.

Unfortunately, tonight he would be.

* * *

><p>Tyson handed the phone back to Annabeth.<p>

"Good job Tyson, that was perfect." Annabeth told him

"Won't people get hurt if he does what I told him?" Tyson said

Annabeth's stomach lurched. Why did kids always have to be so blunt? "Yes, probably, but a lot more will be hurt if he doesn't."

"Isn't there a way no one can get hurt?"

Annabeth didn't say anything for a moment, then "I don't believe there is, Tyson."

"Don't worry about that right now." Luke said "You go on now, alright."

Tyson nodded and went off

"I wish we didn't have to get Tyson involved in this." Annabeth told Luke once he was gone

"I know." Luke said "But there's just no helping it. C'mon, the night's not over yet."

"No," Annabeth agreed "Not by a longshot."

* * *

><p>It was close to eleven and long past night fall when Jason appeared at his sister's bedside. He decided not to turn on the lights in case he got caught and told to go home. Whatever he said right now, it had waited fourteen years and couldn't wait any more. Fortunately the moon was full enough to light the room enough to be seen by.<p>

He'd brought flowers. Why, he wasn't exactly sure. What do people in comas care? But for some stupid reason he'd brought them. Tulips, in fact. He put them on her bedside table and say in the chair beside her.

"Alright listen," he started "I don't know if you can hear me or not but I've got some things to get off my chest and I am going to say them. If you don't hear it . . . so be it. Maybe that's for the best anyway." He paused and licked his lips, trying to collect his thoughts. He'd been mentally rehearsing this in his head for over a week now. But now that the moment had come, he found it a little harder to say it out loud

"I used to think I understood why you did what you did. I mean I can't say it didn't hurt. I still believed in the Tooth Fairy for crying out loud! But, at least I knew _why,_ I could tie it down. But now . . . you were a mutant too? Weren't you? The whole damn time, I thought you were scared of me but why? If you were one too."

Jason's voice failed him for a moment, then he finally managed "I thought I was some kind of freak."

Damn, now his eyes were starting to water. He would've been beaten for crying at the Wolf House after his family had left him on that damn playground when he was seven. This is why he didn't talk about this much. He wiped his eyes and forced himself to keep going.

"I waited for days for you guys to come back, but you never did. 'Course you knew that bit. Anyway one of the moms realized I was sleeping in the slide and tried to get me to come with her. To social services or the police or whatever. But I didn't want to go, she grabbed me and tried to carry me away and . . . I didn't mean to. I was scared. I . . . I electrocuted her. I never found out what happened to her. If she was just hurt, or unconscious, or . . . " He couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence. He felt particularly struck just then by how little Thalia had changed in so many years. He knew she had a reduced aging factor but . . . this was just uncanny. She looked almost exactly the same as she did when she was fourteen. And she was technically twenty-eight!

"I ran. The other people at the playground saw what happened and called to cops. I barely made it a mile before they got me."

Soon be found himself spilling his guts to his unconscious sister. Everything from when they'd taken him to the Wolf House, to his training, his first missions, even his childhood crutches. Everything came pouring out of him like a flood that'd finally broken it's dam. What surprised Jason was how good it felt to get it out of him. In Wolf House you were never supposed to show weakness or cowardice. Jason had spent years building that dam to keep all the nasty thing inside of him but finally it'd broken.

And it felt good. It felt good to say all of this out loud, weather she could hear him or not. When he was done he just sat in the quiet for a second. Then he got up and took his sister's hand.

"So listen, I need a favor okay, sis? I need you to wake up. I just . . . I can't not know anymore. Besides it'd be nice to talk to you when you can actually respond." he gave her a kiss on the forehead "I should probably go. Please wake up."

And he went and flew out the window.

* * *

><p>Leo wasn't sure what he expected when the guards stopped beating him and brought him in here, but experience told him to play it cool. Act like he wasn't scared. If you took their intimidation factor away, the guards usually got frustrated and said more then they meant to. If you were lucky they give you something you could use as leverage to get yourself out of there.<p>

Leo wasn't really the lucky type.

He'd been tinkering again with some of the scrap pieces Piper got him from her poker games. Man that girl was a shark at poker. she could bluff like a pro and knew exactly when to call and fold. She racked home the winnings. She usually would give him anything he wanted, said it was the least she could do after he'd shown her the ropes when she'd arrived. And if there was something in particular he needed, he knew he could count on Piper.

But even with her winnings split between them, life here sucked. They purposely kept the cells cold, there was rarely enough at mealtimes, there weren't enough pillows to go around, let alone blankets, or towels or socks. Between bribes and just plain pity Leo and Piper gave away so much stuff they usually ended up short. And Piper was alright, her Dad would send her whatever she needed through mail. But if you were like Leo, or the other three quarters of the inmates in here, no family or loved ones that give a damn you're locked up. No connection to the outside world. Good luck, buddy.

Last week Piper's dad had sent her a custom CD track. He didn't realize that she couldn't listen to it. So Leo gave her a list of things to keep an eye out for and managed to make a CD player for her. The sound quality wasn't the best and it was really fragile, but she'd loved it anyway.

Anyway, That'd gotten Leo thinking maybe he could make other commodities like a clock or a hair dryer or what have you. He'd been planning ways to make that stuff all week. Drawing skematics, making notes, and especially tinkering.

The problem was the guards didn't particularly appreciate his genius. They took away his notes, broke his prototypes, beat him. Leo wanted to get depressed or angry abut it. But whenever he looked around this shithole they'd put him in, he knew he had to do something to help. And the only thing he was any good at were machines. So he pushed his misery aside and went to work. He'd had plenty of experience hiding his pain, anyway.

Now he was sitting in an interrogation room, with no idea what they were about to throw at him.

Finally one of the guards came in. It was the first time Leo had seen one without their helmet one. He was big and muscular, like most of them, he was clearly Chinese with buzz cut black hair and a roundups face. But it wasn't his muscles or face that struck Leo when he walked in, it was the look in his eyes. He looked worried and nervous. Why would he be the nervous one?

Leo decided to play it to his advantage. He threw his feet up on the table and put his hands behind his head, ignoring how it hurt to move. "So, what's this all about?" he said as casually as he could.

The guy tossed a file on the table and sat across from him.

"Feet off the table." he said business-like "I've got a proposal for you, Leo."

Leo took his feet down, but didn't drop the attitude "Whoa, you guys know my name? I thought I was just prisoner number 3141592 to you guys. Or scum, I hear scum a lot."

"You are," the guard said "To _them._" he pointed to the door, indicating the rest of the gaurds "Not to me."

"Aw, I'm touched." Leo said, putting a hand to his heart

"Look my name's Frank Zhang. I've got a deal for you." he open the file and slid it towards Leo. Inside, amongst other things, Leo recognized the notes he made when he was working on paper towels in the cafeteria.

"We've been keeping an eye on you. You're a prodigy in mechanics and engineering. Unparalleled to anyone the MRD's working with."

"Oh you flatter me." Leo smiled

"I figure it'd be pretty simple for you to deactivate these collars."

Leo raised an eyebrow "Where's this going, Frank?"

In a hurried voice, Frank told him the plan. When he was done Leo whistled.

"Dang, Zhang, you're really put your neck out there here aren't yah?"

Frank swallowed "I guess I am." he said "Can you do it?"

"Oh yeah I can do it." Leo assured him. Frank's face started to relax "The question is will I."

Frank didn't say anything, so Leo kept going "You said this was a deal, right? A deal comes with conditions."

"What do you want?" Frank glowered

Leo smiled evilly _Now we're talking!_ He thought

"Well, naturally I want my record wiped. I did not kill that man and I'd rather not have to drag that around with me the rest of my life."

"Fine."

"And I want one half hour, unsupervised, of access to the MRD's database."

"What could you want from there? If we couldn't get anything-"

"You lot aren't me." Leo cut him off with a cheeky grin "And my reasons are my own, I don't need to explain anything to you. Now, have we got a deal?"

Frank hesitated "I don't know how long I can get you in the database for, they have automatic firewalls or something to keep people from hacking and snooping around. And my number alone won't get you very far."

"Let me worry about that. We got a deal?" Leo said

"Deal."

* * *

><p>Piper was almost asleep when it happened.<p>

She'd stayed up late listening to her Dad's CD. Just playing the same 12 songs over and over again. It made her so happy to have something from her Dad. A sure sign that he still cared about her, even if she was in jail. She's saved every letter her Dad had sent her over the past few weeks in her pillowcase. Sometimes, when it got really hard in this hellhole, she'd take them out and read them again. And by sometimes she meant almost nightly.

And the CD player Leo had whipped up just melted her heart. She didn't even want to think what this would be like without Leo. Sure, he was hyper and annoying and told lame jokes. But he'd been her best friend and showed her how to survive in here.

She had finally taken her headphones out and was curled up under her blanket, a wadded up spare jumpsuit as her pillow, when she heard a soft 'phsss' coming from the door. She turned and saw, to her astonishment, the cell door opening.

But that was impossible, right? Everyone knew the cells were the most secure part of Bedrock. It'd been on the news before she'd been taken away, every cell was locked electronically with something like two tons of pressure on it, and backed up by an electric field around the door, stronger then anything the collars could do. Once the cells were locked there was no way to open them. It was impossible.

Yet, here she was, cautiously stepping out of her cell along with everyone else as far as she could see. Every cell within eyeshot had opened simultaneously. Hundreds of scared and confused looking people wandered outside the doorway in total silence.

"This has to be some kind of trick, right?" someone said

Then something even more unexpected happened. The collars fell off.

For weeks those collars had shocked them, burnt them, tormented them. Piper remembered once she'd woken up in the middle of the night to a particularly excruciating shock. As far as she knew, it'd been completely random. And then all of them, all of their tormentors just fell to the floor.

Piper reached her hand to her neck. She could feel the burns on her throat from all the times they'd hurt her. To be free of that after so long . . . it felt like having an oxygen high.

"Okay this has to be a trap."

"If it is the MRD are bigger tucking idiots then I thought." Clarisse said "Now I don't know about you losers, but I think I'm gonna go find those shits AND GIVE THEM A TASTE OF THIER OWN FUCKING MEDICINE!"

A roar of approval flooded the halls

"WHO'S WITH ME!?" Clarisse screamed

Another roar, and this time Piper joined in.

That was when the first explosion happened.


	4. The Burnout

**Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!**

**Before we get things under way I'd like to thank Qwerty for THE SWEETEST REVIEW. I am so glad you like the story and I will do my best to do it justice! Thank you! **

**So, this chapter is kinda emotion dense. This chapter is where things start going to shit. There's a lot of set-up's for future story lines and character development. Unfortunately, Hazel's still not here but she will be in the next chapter.**

**I'll warn you if you've ever been a victim of sexual assault there may be some triggers here. **

* * *

><p><strong>(Immediately after that)<strong>

Leo stood, jaw open, frozen in place. In front of him a fiery explosion bloomed before him like a horrendous flower in a ring of thunder that left his ears ringing. The world seemed frozen for a moment of horrifying light and terror. As soon as the sound of the explosion died down his ears filled up with screaming.

"That . . . That wasn't supposed to . . . " he tried to talk but his brain seemed to have lost all intelligent function.

He turned and looked at Frank, but he refused to meet Leo's eyes. His face burning with shame. Suddenly, something occurred to Leo that filled his with so much anger he could barely see straight. He grabbed Franks uniform collar and yanked him down, so Leo could get in his face.

"You knew." he snarled "Didn't you?"

Frank didn't say anything, which was more then enough of an answer. Leo threw him down and ran for the door, yanked it open and dashed down the hallway without so much as a second glance. There was no time to be acting emotional or giving lectures. Not when people were burning.

_Piper_ he thought _Piper's down there somewhere_

He reached a stairwell and leaped down them three at a time. Later he would think it was ridiculous. He had never been a hero. Never claimed to be. But goddamnit he had already lost too much to the flames, he was _not_ losing his best friend too. He flung open the door at the bottom of the staircase and plunged into the fire.

He wasn't entirely sure where he was. He'd never been allowed in the women's ward. But he kept running. He followed the screaming voices of the wounded until he came across one girl trapped under a pile of rubble. She was moaning, barely conscious, but she was alive. Leo dug her out and picked her up in his arms. Bridal style, since she was too weak to stand. She looked, for the most part, uninjured. But her forehead was bleeding and the light in her eyes was dim. He skin looked unnaturally pale against her pitch black hair.

"Hey, stay with me okay?" Leo said, giving her a little shake in his arms "I'll get you out of here okay?"

"Zeethos." She muttered "Where's my brother?"

Zeethos was her brother? Then this must be Khione. Zeethos and Cal were always complaining about her, but Leo'd never met her. For some reason this hit Leo like a train, knocking all the wind out of him. This girl had a family. She wasn't a nobody who had no one to mourn them, like he was. She was someone's sister. Someone's daughter. And now she might die.

Leo listened to all the moans and screams and crying around him. He looked around at all the hot, orange, tongs of fire surrounding him. He knew he would survive, he always did, but how could he help so many people? His arms were already full with just one!

Then he remembered the last time he'd felt so helpless. The last time those orange flames of fire had taunted him. Now was not the time to feel weak. He could not afford to be so . . . so . . . human. Not now. Not this time.

He ran on.

Soon enough he came across a door with a sign on it that read 'Kitchen'. He heard a familiar scream from inside. His eyes widened and he kicked the door open.

The image that greeted him was one that would haunt his nightmares for a long time after everything was said and done.

There was Cal, holding Piper down on a table. Her prison jumpsuit was ripped open and her bare breasts exposed. Zeethos stood over her, naked from the waist down. His hands firmly on her thighs, a vicious grin on his face.

Zeethos looked up lazily when Leo kicked the door open. "Oh hey, Leo." he said casually, slowly. He was clearly savoring this. "You want some, man? I know you've had your eye on this bitch for a while now, right? Don't worry I'll leave enough for you."

Piper had started to cry. Leo couldn't move. This was like something out of a nightmare.

"It's my last night alive, man." Zeethos said "I'm gonna spend it happy."

As if on cue, that was when a gun shot sounded. And then Zeethos fell on the floor. Dead.

Frank Zhang jumped down from a rafter, sniper rifle in hand and a hardened expression on his face. He pointed the gun at Cal, who hadn't even had time to react yet."

"Let her go. Now!" he ordered

Cal just stared. Dumbfounded. "Zee? He dead?" no one said anything. "You killed my brother!" he bellowed.

Frank took a step back. You could see what he'd just done had hit him. Cal let go of Piper and charged at Frank. Frank was to far taken aback to react.

Fortunately, Piper was there and he didn't have to. She grabbed a frying pan from above her, hanging on the ceiling so fast you'd almost miss it and slammed it into Cal's skull. Cal's eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to the floor. Out cold. (Yes, she actually knocked his out with a frying. That actually happened.) Then Piper hit him again. And again and again. She was screaming and crying and beating Cal senselessly.

Eventually Leo had to say "Piper, that's enough."

Piper turned to him sharply, her pan raised. Tears and mucus streaming her face. Her hair was everywhere and her eyes shone with pain and emotion"You said if I did what you said they'd leave me alone! You said I'd be safe!" she screamed. Her voice choked with emotion.

Leo couldn't speak for a moment, finally he managed "I know, Piper. I never -" then she dissolved into a crying fit. Leo felt like someone was strangling him. He wanted to go to her but he was still carrying Khione, plus he wasn't sure she'd want anyone touching her just then.

It wasn't until the sound of a support beam cracking came that they all remembered they were still in a burning building. Now wasn't the time to be think about sadness. Leo needed to do something.

"Zhang." he called. Frank, who'd been starring at Zeetho's body the whole time, started. Leo handed the unconscious Khione to him. He wasn't sure when she'd lost consciousness, but she was still breathing. "Get her and Cal out of here." he instructed.

"I swear I never meant for this to happen." he chocked out before having a coughing fit on the smoke.

"Just get them out of here. I'll see if there's any more I can get out before the place comes down." Leo went to go

"Wait." Frank grabbed his shoulder "I can take a lot more then just them. Get as many as you can rounded up in one place and I'll play taxi and get them out."

"How're you going to do that?"

"There's no time to explain. Just go!" Frank ran off

There was a hesitation when Leo and Piper were left alone together "Piper, you know-" Leo tried but Piper cut him off

"Let's just get on with this." she grabbed a fire extinguisher from under the sink "If I'm lucky I'll be dead before the nights done and I can forget all this."

The next . . . actually, Leo was never sure how long it was. Only that it was a blur of running around in a panic. Finding barely alive bodies in burning heaps. Helping them up, and running them back to the kitchen. If he'd been anyone else he would've died a million times doing some of the stunts he pulled that night. But he wasn't anyone else.

He was Leo Valdez, the one and only. He wasn't hurt be fire. He knew when to dodge falling rubble. He could see ways of solving problems. He was going to _survive _because that is what Leo Valdez freaking does. He adapts. He moves on. He cracks jokes to hide the pain. And he endures it. He will always struggle and fight but in the end he walks away. And he survives.

* * *

><p><em>Getting into the place was easy enough,<em> Luke thought _it was the getting out that would be the trouble._ He had to be make sure no one saw him or they'd defiantly stop and question him as to why he was hauling two coma-patents to the elevator.

To solve the problem, he decided to cut the lights. Just the lights, of course, no way he'd risk all the important life-saving machines on that floor. Still, it caused quite a panic. That combined with just plain darkness meant he could get away with just about anything. He had a gun with a silencer in his pocket, too, in case things went south. But that was a last resort only.

He ran down the halls of the hospital wearing infa-red goggles in the blackness and pushing a stretcher. Not that he needed them to find the room at this point. He'd made the trip so many times it was practically muscle memory.

Luke came in and turned on a flashlight. In one bed lay Percy, and in the other . . . was nothing. The sheets were pulled back and no one was inside the bed. The window five feet from her bed was thrown open and a chill breeze drifted in.

Nononononono! This was not part of the plan! Where was Thalia?

"Hey! What are-" a voice said behind him

Luke didn't even think. He slammed the butt of him gun into the man's head and he passed out cold, blood trickling from his forehead.

A moment of silence passed before Luke spoke "Uh-oh."

He grabbed Percy and his heavy ass and loaded him onto the stretcher and made a run for it.

* * *

><p>To say the girl standing in front of them was frightening was like saving it'd been a little warm in Bedrock tonight. She stood erect, with her shoulders back, her arms crossed and her expression hard as stone. She wore a black cat-suit, red lipstick, and her black hair in a braid over her shoulder. Her piercing black eyes seemed to stare into you're very core, pinpointing any weaknesses whatsoever. Even if Leo hadn't been running around all night he probably would've had to catch his breath.<p>

"What. Happened." she demanded

Bedrock sat as a smoldering lump of rubble behind them. A group of medical helicopters had showed up towards the end there and the survivors were being treated. Plenty had already taken off to get them to the ER. Now they were left with a passed off Hispanic girl interrogating them about why the fuck everything blew up.

For a moment nobody spoke. Then, surprisingly, it was Frank, who was still getting oxygen from a tank, who spoke up. "I didn't know about the bombs." he said

The girl raised an eyebrow "What bombs?"

Frank might've looked confused if he wasn't so busy trying not to pass out "Didn't you know? The Wolf House never send orders unless they know all variables."

"What bombs?" she repeated "What do you mean the Wolf House? What orders?"

Frank tried to respond but he was really having trouble breathing now. He started hyperventilating and pressed the oxygen face mask against his mouth. The girl signed like this was a big incontinence.

"Um, maim," Leo said "I can probably fill in the blanks. See, I was a prisoner here. Frank called for me to be brought into an interrogation room and made me a deal. He explained to me all about Wolf House and how he'd been sent under cover to keep an eye on things. He told me he was acting on orders from one of his superior at the Wolf House. Anyway, I'm a bit of a guineas when it comes to technology and he wanted me to hack the prisons cells and collars and deactivate them remotely. Setting everyone free. But just after I deactivated the collars, an explosion went off. Several, actually, I believe they were designed to set the building on fire, rather then damage the building itself. Otherwise the building would've collapsed much faster then it did."

Piper didn't say anything, but she'd started giving Leo the evil eye. Which made him feel a hell of a lot worse because he knew she blamed him. He couldn't bear to look at her.

"Interesting." Reyna said, her gaze fixed on Frank "Well discuss this further when you're in better health, Agent. For now could you tell me who gave you these orders?"

Frank hesitated for a bit. He still had the face mask up against his face and was breathing pretty hard. He looked like he was in so much hell Leo almost felt sorry for him. Instead of answering he just pointed to one of the black helicopters not to far from them. Sitting in the doorway was a blond guy about Leo's age with rugged good-looks and a scar on his upper lip. He was talking quietly to a girl maybe sixteen years old with black hair. She was wearing a hospital gown and a jacket that was clearly way to big for her and was barefoot.

They both seemed pretty invested in their conversation and barely noticed the rescue scene in front of them. The girl went and touched the inside of his forearm tenderly. Like she was worried it'd hurt him.

"No." Reyna said quickly "You must be mistaken."

"I'm not." Frank insisted "You can check the phone record."

"The Wolf House did not order this. There's no way Jason would act solo without consulting the Senate."

"Well I wish someone had thought to tell me that before everything went to hell!" Frank snapped

Reyna raised an eyebrow and he backed down. Then her expression softened a degree. "If you really were just following orders, I suppose the senate can't punish you too harshly. But this will be investigated. And I want you to be _very _certain it was Jason before you make that accusation to the Senate. For right now, let's get you back to N.R." she waved Frank off and he went to lay down.

"What's going to happen to him?" Khione asked (Yeah. She's been there the whole time.)

"He'll be taken off active duty while the Senate investigates and decides what to do. There will probably be a trial for him to defend himself." Reyna explained

"Why should he get to defend himself? He's a murderer!" Khione shouted

"Khione-"

"He shot my brother! He killed him!"

"Because your brother was trying to put his dick in me while Bedrock was on fire!" Piper intercepted "He deserved what he got!"

Reyna made a noise like someone had punched her in the gut "You . . . were raped?"

Piper looked like she suddenly wanted to crawl under a rock "No. But they tried to." she managed "Her two brothers, Cal and Zeethos. Cal, who's flipping huge, he held me down and-

"That's alright you don't have to tell me." Reyna said hurriedly, putting a hand on her shoulder. Her tone adding a silent _I won't make you relive that _

"Khione go lie down." Reyna ordered

"I don't-"

"Go."

Khione didn't look happy about it, but even after only five minutes it was obvious you didn't argue with Reyna. So she headed off.

Reyna took a breath and scanned the situation around her. "I'd like both of you to come back to headquarters with us. You're testimony could make or break Frank Zhang's future." She said

Leo wasn't sure how he felt about that. True it seemed Frank had been a victim here, just following orders. But Leo could never pretend he wasn't biased on the matter. Frank was a solider, just doing his job, Leo could get that. If his job hadn't gotten so many people killed and hurt. If his job hadn't resulted in his best friend being almost raped on a kitchen table. If his job hadn't made him go through Hell. Again.

"Maim you don't want that. I'm way too close to this to not be a biased source."

"Yes, I think that's true." Reyna said "But so is everyone. Besides the Senate would never hear of you not coming in."

Leo was too tired to argue with her and just agreed to come.

"Well I'm not." Piper said "I'm going home to my Dad."

Reyna hesitated, then asked "Are you sure that's the best idea? The MRD will be trying to round up the escapees as soon as they can. Your parents house will be the first place they'll look. You may be putting him at risk. I'm sorry, I don't think it's a good idea."

"So what's going on?" Jason had appeared behind Reyna, the black haired girl holding his hand

Reyna looked irritated "Oh good. Now you decide to do something."

Jason looked hurt "Um, sorry? I got a little side tracked."

Reyna let it drop and filled Jason in on the damage to the prison, Frank and Leo's involvement, and how the rescue had been going so far. Just about everyone had burns to be treated and broken bones that needed to heal. Leo seemed to be the only one unscathed and he knew he could collapse from exhaustion any time now. Not to mention the lifetime of nightmares ahead of everyone there. She said the only reason the rescue team had had so long undisturbed was because something had caused the MRD communication systems to crash. That probably wasn't a coincidence, she said. She didn't mention that his name had come up, or what'd happened to Piper. She probably felt that it was Piper's own business who knew about that.

"Anyway, Piper insists on visiting her Dad. But I don't think it's a good idea, not unprotected" Reyna concluded

"Then put me in protective custody or something." Piper argued "I'll do you're testimony _after _I see my father."

"I could take you." Jason offered "I've got to take Thalia back to New York pretty soon anyway. It's no big deal."

"I can't wait to see Luke and Annabeth again. You're gonna love them." The girl promised him

Reyna gave Jason a look and they seemed to have a silent conversation. Leo was about 96% sure it boiled down to this _'Crap, I'm in trouble.' 'Yes you are. But I won't call you out here.'_

Reyna didn't look like she liked that idea any better, but eventually said "Alright, I suppose if you're alright with that. But-"

"Like he said, no big deal." Piper cut her off and then marched away

Jason got this look like _well that was weird _"You can cover for me for a few days, right Reyna?"

"Sure, just be back by Friday."

"What's Friday?" Jason asked

Reyna didn't say anything but he gave him a look until he clapped a hand to his forehead "Oh! Right. Dinner. Sorry."

Reyna gave a half hearted smile and said in Spanish "Eres un idiota. Me recuerdan por qué te dejo introdujo su pene en mí?"

"What?" Leo said a little too loudly

Reyna's eyes looked horrified "You heard nothing." she said

"Wait. No, seriously she does that a lot. What did she say?" Jason asked

"I am not translating that." Leo said

A moment passed. Then Thalia "Oh my God. Things are going to be so different now. I've got a lot of catching up to do."

* * *

><p><strong>Ugh, that ending could've been so much stronger. But, yeah. <strong>

**Please review**


	5. When No One's Looking

**Dear God this took forever to write! I guess I should apologize because I wanted to have pretty regular updates, but I failed to have any idea how stressful my life would become once swim season started, and how hard it would be to carve out free time to write this.**

**I'd love to say more but I have more homework to attend to. Huzzah!**

* * *

><p>"Gone, what do you mean she was gone." Annabeth demanded<p>

"I mean she was gone, she wasn't in her bed, I don't know how much clearer I can make it." Luke shot back, just as frustrated as she was

"She's in a coma!" Annabeth half-yelled "What?- Why?- Did someone take her? Why would they do that?"

"Uh, Annabeth." Luke pointed to Percy's unconscious form, it was still on the stretcher.

"Oh, you know what I mean!" she hissed

She half-sighed half-groaned and raked her fingers through her curly blond hair. She was still wearing her orange prison jumpsuit, but other then that there was no sign she had been in what the press had named The Burnout. It was starting to amuse Luke how the press named everything they did. He wondered how many government plans had just been like, plan #43, but the magazines were like _The government introduces the maternity plan._

Annabeth hadn't been arrested, of course, but she was by far the best at bypassing security. (Luke would never admit it, but he was a little jealous of her skills) She'd posed as a prisoner long enough for them to achieve their goals. Once the explosions had gone off. She'd led a good number of people through a 'safe' route out of the prison. This way the mutant community would know that Annabeth had their best interests at heart, and probably be willing to do her a lot of favors.

She looked up at Luke, tears welling in her eyes "There's no going back now, is there?"

Luke pulled her into a hug and she buried her face in his chest "No." he said

He stared past her, at the huge structure looming in the distance. They both knew that now, sooner or later, trouble would come looking for them. Weather it was the Wolf House or the MRD or whoever put it together first. Well, they wouldn't find them at their home address at least, that was for sure. So Luke had seen to it they had a new home waiting for them.

"Come on, Annabeth." he said "Let's get Percy inside." the Princess Armadia was waiting.

* * *

><p>Piper wished she could sleep. She'd been awake over forty hours now and she wasn't loving it, but every time she tried to shut her eyes horrifying images came to her. Zeethos and his sickening grin, flames swallowing up around her, gruesome burn victims, the bruises on her wrists and thighs, the list went on. She was scared if she actually slept, actually let herself dream, she'd see worse things. She was scared she wouldn't wake up.<p>

Finally they were on a plane ride back to Miami. Piper tried thinking of her Dad to cheer her up, but then she remembered she couldn't stay more then a day or so. At least until the trial was over. Reyna's warning came back to her then, as a sour reminder.

Part of Piper wanted to think that no one would dare touch the famed Tristen McLean, King of Sparta, Cherokee hunk (gross), teenage heartthrob (also gross). Every other part of her knew That would only make everything worse. The media would eat this up. She could see the headlines now: _Tristen McLean's Daughter, Freak of Nature and Criminal! _Ugh.

Jason softly snoring next to her didn't really help either. Sure, he seemed perfectly nice and respectful, he even had a girlfriend. But Piper just couldn't help feel nervous around him. Like any moment he'd grab her and . . . well, let's not continue that line of thought.

Thalia at least seemed as jumpy as her in the aisle seat, flying in an airplane. Apparently she was terrified of heights. Jason had pleaded with her for a while in the airport, but with no luck. Finally Piper had to use her hyper-suasion to get her on board and in her seat until they took off and it was too late. She pretended to be reading a magazine, but Piper could feel the anxiety coming off of her. She thought about trying to use her hyper-suasion to calm her down. But she was so low on energy at this point it there was no chance it would work. Getting her onto the plane alone had sapped the last of her strength.

Suddenly Jason's head rolled onto her shoulder and she jumped violently enough to wake him up.

"Oh, sorry. Did I lean on you?" he said in a muttered voice, sitting up again and rubbing his eyes.

"Just a bit." Piper felt her face burning.

Jason's eyebrows creased "Are you alright? You look a little-"

"I'm fine." Piper cut him off and turned her whole body from him and looked out the dark window.

Jason wondered for about the millionth time what was the matter with her. He'd tried a few times to comfort her about the Burnout but she just didn't want to talk about it apparently. Jason knew from experience it was never a good idea to keep something like that all bottled up. He also knew there was something else in the mix too. Something beyond the fire she was scared of . . . people it, seemed. She was jumpy and always glancing over her shoulder. If she stayed all wound up like that, sooner or later, she'd pop. But he also knew you should never try and force someone to talk about their issues, so he'd have to leave her be. For now, at least.

Then he noticed something weird about Thalia "Are you humming Green Day?"

"It calms me down."

"Look, just try to relax."

"Just try to shut up!"

Jason couldn't help chuckling. The fact that his sister was so terrified of heights was simply hilarious.

He took her hand in his "I won't let anything happen to you. I promise." he whispered

Thalia tried to give him a kiss on the cheek. But there was such a height difference between them now she could only reach his jaw. Then Jason saw that look in her eyes again.

"You have stubble." she said softly

Jason reached up and ran a hand over his jaw "Oh yeah I need to-" he stopped when he realized Thalia was still staring at him with that horrified look in her eyes.

He knew what was going on, of course. Thalia had believed her little brother was dead all the time they were apart. But now here he was. A full grown twenty-one-year-old. And she looked like she was sixteen, just to salt the wound. He'd but his arm around her in the airport, when he was trying to calm her down, someone called out and told him he was a cradle robber! Jason had no idea it was possible to be disgusted on so many different levels simultaneously. And he worked with monsters! This was going to take some getting used to.

Eventually they were playing twenty questions and neither of them noticed Piper nodding off to sleep.

* * *

><p>People darted out of her way when they heard her heels clicking along the floor. She stared forward, not bothering to give them a second glance, she was used to this after all. A file tucked under her arm, Reyna marched into the directors office without bothering to knock.<p>

"Agent Reyna, I was expecting you." the director said from her desk.

"I came with my report of the Burnout." Reyna said evenly, handing her the file

"Ah, yes, good." The director flipped the file open and began leafing through it

"There were a total of 67 mutants who died in that fire. We have another two dozen in critical condition. We're still trying to identify all the bodies, notify the families." Reyna pushed a stray lock of hair out of her face

"You sound upset." the director noticed

"I've been talking a fair bit with the survivors and reading up on Zhang's reports. Most of those mutants were only guilty of petty crimes. Others had minimal evidence. . . they did not deserve what they got. The conditions in that prison is like something out of a horror movie. And now they're dead, burt, traumatized. So, yes, I am rather upset." Reyna replied

"Then you should be focusing on getting justice for those mutants, Reyna." the director said cooly "Now, those bombs you mention in your report. Do we know who put them there?"

"No, not yet." Reyna said "Zhang reports if the MRD had them there as a back-up plan he wouldn't have been informed. They keep the important stuff a secret amongst the higher-ups. But from the building plans we have it doesn't seem they were thinking about planting them while Bedrock was under construction. What I find interesting is that, according to what little I could get out of the victims, it seems the initial blast did minimal structural damage. It seems the bombs were designed to start the fire and spread the fire as quickly as possible. The MRD would have wanted as much damage to the building as possible, to limit the number of mutants that could escape and maximize the number killed by the initial blast and falling rubble."

"What are you suggesting then?"

"I'm not sure just yet. Give me a bit I've only been on the case twenty-nine hours. But I think there's a third party here that we're not considering. The Brotherhood."

"The what?"

"The terrorist that were sabotaging Bedrock's construction." Reyna explained

The director nodded "Oh yeah, them. Didn't we send Jason to shut them up?"

"It didn't go well." Reyna said "Some . . . unexpected variables came up. Anyway the point is that the mutant community is in uproar about the Burnout and the Brotherhood has become an internet sensation. Weather they planted the bombs or not, they are just about the only ones benefitting here."

"I'll take that into consideration." the director said "Now, where is Jason? He'd not the type to take a slacker seat on something like this."

"He's taking a rape victim back to her father. Then he's heading to New York to speak with the Brotherhood again." Reyna said

The director raised an eyebrow "Ah, I see. Questionable given his position in all this. One might think he was fleeing."

Reyna gulped, but held her ground. Finally the director seemed to drop it. "So this . . . Sang?"

"Zhang." Reyna corrected her

The director nodded "How much do we have from him?"

"He's been going in and out of consciousness. It's been difficult to get a statement from him." Reyna said stiffly

"Ah, well, see that you get what you can from him before the trial starts. We wouldn't want any lose ends running around." the director said "That's all. You may go."

Reyna turned on her heel and walked away. Her heels clicking on the floor

* * *

><p>The infirmity was your usual bleached-white hospital room with two rows of beds with too-soft mattresses and stiff sheets and a chemical scent in the air. It wasn't somewhere anyone liked to be, particularly. Everyone in the Wolf House treated professional medical treatment as a kind of last resort. If you spent the night in the infirmity word usually got around that you were nursing some life-or-death injury.<p>

Was this life or death? Well, it depends. On one hand Frank had bad second degree burns all across his back in and it hurt to move. His breathing had finally stabilized though he felt thirsty all the time and his throat felt extremely dry. But he couldn't seem to stay awake more then an hour at a time. If he tried to stay awake longer then that his eyelids got too heavy to keep open and he fell into a sticky dream-less sleep.

To be honest, he part of him was glad about this. He didn't want to stay awake and have to think about what he had seen. To think about the flames threatening to engulf him. The smoke filling his lungs every chance it got. Trying to snuff out his air supply. To think about the sound of the gunshot he'd fired. The lifeless body of Zeethos North on the burning floor. His sister lying half-conscious in his arms.

He needed the relieve that sticky sleep gave him.

But part of him was scared he'd sleep to long. And if he slept to long and didn't take his meds . . . then he might not wake up.

Then finally Hazel came to visit him and he fought to sit up.

"Frank! Oh thank God, you're alright!" Hazel threw her arms around him. He tried not to wince when her hands touched his burns. She started talking really fast and Frank could barely make out what she was saying. She kept looking him over, checking him for bruises or scars or other burns. Frank couldn't help but smile. God, he'd missed her. Finally she calmed down and came to a resting position with her hands on his cheeks.

"Have you been taking your meds?" she asked, looking him dead in the eye

"If I hadn't I wouldn't be here. You know that." Frank replied. He tried very hard to ignore the minimal distance between them. And her hands on his face. And his growing urge to kiss her.

Then Hazel seemed to realize what was happening and her face flushed. She swallowed and took a step back and leaded on the small table next to his bed, resting her hands behind her on the table top. Frank wanted to believe she felt what he did. but he knew it was more then likely just because she was from the '40's.

"I don't believe what they're saying." she said "There's no way you would've done that if you knew what would've happened. I don't believe that for a minute."

Frank suddenly found it much easier to look at his toes then at her. "Well it doesn't really matter. I did, and it happened, and now a lot of people are dead or hurt because of me."

"No." Hazel said "Not because of you. Because of whoever gave you those orders in the first place. Don't let yourself think like that."

"I killed someone, Hazel." Frank confessed "They didn't burn or get crushed by rubble of anything. He tried to rape a girl in the middle of the confusion so I shot him in the head. I . . . I never wanted to go that far." he had to stop himself because he could feel the tears welling up in his .

Then he felt Hazel's arms wrap themselves around his neck. Her cinnamon hair tickled his cheek. She had to stand on her tip-toes to reach, even with him sitting down. He grabbed his arms around her waist and hurried his face in her shoulder. She smelled like hot chocolate.

"I wish I could say it gets easier." she said in his ear

Frank tried to say something, but it came out sounding muffled and lost in her shoulder.

"What?" she asked

Frank lifted his face "I don't want it to get easier to kill people." he said "If there ever comes a day when I can see a dead man and not feel anything . . . then I'm not me anymore."

That was the truth. But the scary part was it had already happened. When he'd killed Zeethos, there'd been a moment when he forced himself not to register what just happened. He didn't even think about it, he'd just acted. Then he'd realized Cal was Zeethos's brother, that Khione was his sister. He had a family and he'd just made it one member smaller. How could he live with himself, knowing that?

Then again, would his death mean anything less if he didn't have anyone to mourn him? A lot of the prisoners at Bedrock were there because they were easy to convict. They didn't have anyone who cared if they were there or not. No one to fight for them, make a scene. Leo Valdez had been one of those people. Frank tried to imagine if his bullet had missed, and he'd killed Leo instead, would this be any easier?

He pushed the thought out of his head. That was not a path he wanted to go down.

* * *

><p>Funny, she'd remembered the mansion being a lot smaller. But as Piper led Jason and Thalia up the walk way, and they got that look of awe and surprise that people always got when they saw her childhood home, she couldn't help feeling incredibly self-conscious about it. She did her best to ignore them as she let them in. Fortunately, Dad hadn't changed the locks on her. Yet.<p>

"So, uh, yeah." she said as they walked inside "Why don't you guys head down to the kitchen. It's down the hall, third door on the right. It's the chef's day off so you can help yourself to anything. I'm going to go find my Dad."

Jason looked hesitant to leave her, but they disappeared down the hall.

Piper let out a breath she'd been holding ever since they'd left Bedrock. Being around Jason just made her so nervous. She shouldn't have agreed to let him come but she didn't want to risk Reyna or Leo or herself to think she couldn't handle being with a guy for a few days. She wasn't broken. Zeethos had never even gotten the chance to do anything that bad to her.

So how come she saw that evil smile of his every time she closed her eyes? Why was she so scared to go to sleep? Why did the bruises on her wrists and thighs scare her so much it hurt?

She pushed all that away. If she just didn't this think about it, maybe she could pretend it never even happened. Right now she just wanted to talk to her Dad.

"Hey, Piper." said Jason from behind her. Piper jumped so hard she knocked over a flower vase. But some how it didn't fall to the ground. It stopped mid-air and just hovered there.

"Sorry," Jason said "Didn't mean to scare you."

Piper didn't respond. She was to busy staring at the floating flower vase. Suddenly it put itself upright, and flew over to Jason, where it hovered by his shoulder.

"My mutation." he explained "Well, part of it anyway. I can control the air pressure. Make kind of invisible platforms and such to move objects on."

"So you have telepathy."

"Well, yes and no. I mean a telepath controls the object itself with their mind. I just control what's around it." Jason explained. He set the flower vase down on the table again "Anyway, I wanted to thank you for getting Thalia onto the plane."

"It was no big deal." Piper said. Very much aware of the fact that Thalia was NOT there and that she was alone with Jason.

"Honestly her fear of height has always been pretty funny to me, even more now." Jason said

So these two had history together? Piper had been trying to figure out their connection for a while. Her emotion reading had kicked in at the air-port and she found their feeling for each other were all over the place. For one thing, both of them felt a good deal of guilt towards the other, as well as protectiveness and love. But Thalia also had a fair bit of anxiety about Jason and Jason seemed to feel a little bitter towards Thalia, and he was defiantly keeping a secret from her. At first she might've guessed they were ex's but the look on Jason's face when that guy called him a cradle robber . . . No, no way that was it.

"You're a charmspeaker, right?" Jason said

"What?"

"Charmspeaker." Jason explained "The official term is hyper-suasion but we always call it charmspeak at the Wolf House. I don't think you could've convinced her to get on the plane without it. So thanks."

Piper really didn't want to talk about her powers. After all the trouble they'd caused her the fact that Jason was actually _thanking _her for using them . . . it was just to wierd.

"So, um, what's the most you can lift with your powers?" she wasn't sure why she kept talking. But she didn't want to seem too nervous or uncomfterable. If someone figured out what was up with her . . . well, that would be just plain humiliating.

Jason smiled broadly. He looked a little childish when he smiled like that, Piper thought

"Do you want to see?" he asked

"Um . . . yes?"

Jason grabbed her hand and led her outside again. Piper fought every urge not to freak out. He wouldn't do anything in public, would he? Then again could this really be considered 'public' they were pretty secluded way out here. Dad had spent millions to make sure the press would have a hard time invading his home life.

"Alright. Now just, don't freak out. Okay?" Jason said

"Uh, no promises." Piper said

Jason smiled a little. Then, in one motion it seemed, he pulled her towards him, there was a huge rush all around her, and suddenly Piper wasn't standing on solid ground anymore!

"Pretty cool right?" Jason's smile was too big for his face

Piper made some odd animal noise. Intelligent human words seemed an impossibility right now.

"We're . . . We're flying? We-we-we are flying." Piper finally managed

There was an odd glint in Jason's eyes, and not at all the kind she'd expected. He looked . . . proud? Of your mutation? That was ridiculous.

"If it helps you're managing this a lot better then Thalia did. I think I'm going to have hearing problems for a month after all her screaming."

"So you bring girls up here a lot?" Piper observed

"Of course. This is my favorite part." he said "I come up here sometimes when things are just . . . overwhelming. And it feels like all my problems are so far away, they can't touch me."

Piper understood what he meant. Looking down at the world around her, from way up here, it was like being in a completely different world. One where people couldn't hurt her. She looked at Jason, his proud blue eyes the same color as the sky. His breath crashed against her face. Then, simultaneously, they both seemed to realize how close their faces were. Jason blushed.

"How long can you keep this up for?" Piper asked

"Oh hours." Jason said "Big things are easy. It's so easy to make a big gust of wind and move a heavy dresser something. It's the little things that are hard. I have to concentrate so much more with them. You have to be so much more precise, so subtle. I . . . don't do subtlety well." he confessed

There was a moment where they both seemed to soak in how close they were to each other. Piper's hands on his chest, his around her waist. Suddenly Piper wished he'd bring them down, she felt like she needed air. She turned in his grasp away from him. Then she got a good look of her childhood house from the sky and gasped in horror.

* * *

><p>Leo was struck by how untidy the office was. True, he didn't really get to chatting with Reyna last night but he didn't get the impression she was a messy person. Then again, he really hadn't wanted to talk to the her again. But he didn't seem to have any choice in the matter. So he'd found himself pushing away all the painful thoughts that had been swimming around his head all day and knocked on her office door.<p>

Reyna was leaning over a laptop when he came in and barely seemed to notice he was there. He cleared his throat as loudly as he could a few times but she seemed consumed by her work.

"Sorry this is taking a while. I had figured I'd already have these stupid forms filled out by now. I've got a bit of a deadline to keep."

"Well would you like me to come back later?"

"No no, stay there." Reyna ordered (that was defiantly an order) She put away a file and brought out a new one, which she handed to him. Leo took it and leafed through the papers. He recognized it as the same file Frank had shown him last night. The MRDs filed on him, with all his work and notes in it.

"I understand you have a bit of a gift with technology." Reyna said "I have a favor to ask of you."

"The last time I did a favor for you people I caused the Burnout." Leo replied

"Oh I'm not asking you to do anything for me. I merely require information." Reyna replied, coming around the desk

"I've already answered questions for about five different agents." Leo said flatly, taking a seat

"No. Not about the Burnout. I simply want your expert opinion on something."

"Alright. Hit me." Leo said, too tired to argue

"Is there any way someone could, for lack of a better term, hack a cell phone and make it appear that phone had made a call when in fact it was the hacker making to call?"

"This is about the charges against your boyfriend?"

"Yes." Reyna said evenly, she handed him a piece of paper "Frank didn't lie. The records show Jason made that call at 11:39 PM last night. Is there any way he could be being framed?"

"Well, sure." Leo replied "It's defiantly possible someone could hack a phone. But it's tricky."

"Could you do it?"

"In my sleep."

Reyna gestured to her laptop "Could you demonstrate?"

"Yeah, sure." Leo hot up and went to the keyboard. He opened up the control panel and typed in a few commands. "What's your number?"

"781-342-9082"

"Alright and . . ." Leos fingers were ablaze on the keyboard (metaphorically, of course.) he barely even had to think. Until suddenly a while box appeared unexpectedly on the computer screen.

"I'm . . . locked out." he said stupidly

"Well duh." Reyna said "We have some security protocols about hints like this. But," She pushed him away from the keyboard and started entering some numbers into the white box "A high-ranking agent, like Jason or I, would be able to over rule this." She hit the enter key "Like so."

Just then Leo's phone went off. He checked it "You're calling me right now." he said

Reyna took her own phone out of her pocket, there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary with it. She didn't look very happy.

"So Jason's phone could've been hacked. . . if he had been in on it." Leo concluded "Not to mention they would've had to have additional voice manipulating technology running and a sample of what he sounds like."

"Yes thank you Valdez." Reyna snapped. She stared, concentrating on her phone as if she could make it give her a solution to her problems if she glared at it hard enough. Then she quickly put it away and cleared her throat.

"Well, in any case, I have something else to discuss with you." she started for the door "If you'd follow me."

Leo was pretty sure whatever this girl was selling, he didn't want to buy it. He really just wanted to get out of Wolf House as soon as he could. Find some place new, start over, that's what he always did when things blew up in his face like this. But he knew if he tried to leave and these guys didn't want him to, he would not make it ten feet before a bullet found itself in his skull. So he swallowed his emotions and followed her.

Wolf House, Leo thought, seemed almost to good to be true. They were some kind of top-secret intelligence community or something like that. They were supposed to locate any possible mutants in the country and bring them to New Rome to life in safety. New Rome, a mutants paradise, was a hidden city no one knew even existed. They had some sort of next-gen cloaking device that they called the Mist to keep government intelligence from knowing where they were. Part of Leo would give anything to get a look at that puppy.

In fact, Leo should've been over joyed. His whole life he'd felt isolated from the world because of his powers. He'd always believed he was some kind of freak. He remembered his Aunt Rosa calling him a Devil-Child. And now he was surrounded by thousands of mutants! He wasn't alone any more, he could stay as long as he wanted, get a job in the city, live with other people like him! So why did he still feel like he wanted to jump of a bridge?

Course, the answer to that was pretty obvious.

"I've been meaning to ask, what happened to your eye?" came a familiar voice from just up the hall, shaking Leo suddenly from his thoughts

"Oh I asked to be put back on active duty whole you were gone. I'm just coming in from Missouri now, actually." this time it was a girls voice, smooth and with a southern accent

"Active duty? Are you sure you're ready for that?" Leo slowed down his pace so he could get a good look inside

Inside was a sick bay with about two dozen beds with bleached-white sheets and that familiar too-clean scent in the air. On one of the beds sat Frank Zhang, he was talking to a short black girl with curly hair.

"Well, I know I'm not quite up to date yet. But I wasn't going to just sit around until you came back."

"I know but -" Frank caught sight of Leo and stopped midsentence . The girl turned around and as soon as she saw him her eyes got dangerously wide, her jaw opened a little. Leo wondered if Frank had told her about him Leo realized that even with a bruised eye she was very pretty. He looked away, hoping he wasn't blushing, and kept walking.

He'd barely turned the corner when he heard Frank call out "Wait." behind him

Reyna and Leo stopped as Frank jogged up to them. It was clear from his face he it hurt him to move The girl was at his side, her eyes completely locked on Leo. She looked in complete shock, it made Leo feel a little uncomfterable.

"Here" Frank held out a white ID card to him "A deal's a deal. I can't grantee anything but . . . keep it for as long as you need."

Leo hesitated a second, he wasn't sure he even wanted his stupid card anymore, but he took it anyway. After what he'd paid to get this damn thing it'd better be worth it.

"How're your burns?" he asked

"They say there'll be scars, but it's not too serious." Frank replied

"You look tired, Zhang." Reyna remarked "Maybe you should go lie down."

Frank opened his mouth to say something, then clearly thought better of it and headed back down the hall. The girl remained there a second, still staring at Leo in a way that was defiantly making him uncomfterable now, then she made to follow after him. Before she could though, Reyna grabbed her arm.

"That wasn't a business card Frank just gave Leo, was it, Hazel?" she hissed

Hazel took a shaky breath before replying "No." It was near impossible to trick Reyna, even with Hazel's talents. Why did she think that would work?

Fortunately Reyna seemed to let it go "I hope you'll keep in mind that conversation we had the other day, Hazel." she said softly

Hazel forced herself to look Reyna in the eye

"Believe me maim," she said "I am." her eyes darted over to the ghost in the hallway one more time before she walked away. Oh dear God how could he be here?

Reyna led Leo into a room so huge it could've been an empty airplane hanger. Dozens of tables were set up with every power tool, engine part, and scrap metal Leo knew existed. Along the walls were huge bins full of screws, nuts, nails, plaster. It was like something out of a dream. All he'd ever need to build whatever he wanted.

"I-What is this place?" he managed

"Your workshop." Reyna replied "I didn't take you for the type to huddle around a workbench in a garage, so I had this place set up this morning. It is to your satisfaction, I assume?"

"I-I don't have the words."

Reyna cracked a smile "And these" she handed him a large binder she'd been carrying "Are the people you'll be working with. Specify selected. That is, of course, if you want the job."

Leo flipped through the binder, a little dazed "You want me to work for you?" he asked

"Yes." Reyna said "Well, for Wolf House. I think it would be quite good for us to have someone with you genius on our side."

Then a realization dawned on Leo, and his high fell. He took a second look around the workshop and suddenly it didn't seem as tempting.

"You want me to make weapons." he said

"I want you to make things that will help Wolf House." Reyna replied

"I hacked your systems last night." Leo shot at her "I know what you guys do. Every time you 'recruit' a new mutant there's some mysterious or unexplained death in the area. You're an assassin!"

"Are you actually defending those monsters?" Reyna shot back "I know you've seen firsthand what they can do."

"You don't have the right to play judge and jury like that!"

"If we don't protect the mutants we find who will?"

Leo shoved the binder back to Reyna "I'm not helping you kill people." and he walked away

Leo shoved the binder back at her "I'm not helping you kill people." and he walked away

* * *

><p>By the time Jason came back, the knot in Piper's stomach had grown so big it'd practically consumed her.<p>

"There's no burn marks, no sign of radiation, or any of the other usual stuff. Whoever did this, they weren't using any human means." he reported

Jason had put on his glasses, now that it was getting dark out. After Piper had spotted the derby in the back yard he'd immediately brought them down and ran into action. First he'd made sure Thalia was okay, then he'd convinced both of them to stay far away from the house while he made sure there were no threats left inside. Talia had argued against him going in alone, but Piper didn't bother to resist. She was to hallows inside. Once he'd given the all clear he went to the scene of the explosion that had devastated the wall on the back of her house to look for any evidence that might help them figure out what happened.

It didn't take long to figure out Dad was no where to be found. Piper had called everyone she could think of, trying to find out where he might be. But no one had heard for a few days. She'd even considered calling the cops. But she knew if they found out who she was she'd be right back on her way to Bedrock before the da was done.

"So mutants? But why? Who'd want to kidnap Piper's Dad?" Talia asked

Jason turned his icy blue eyes on her "I think that's something Piper should tell us."

She shrugged "My Dad's Tristen McLean."

She had expected a gasp or a stupid question, that's what usually happened, but Jason and Thalia both just looked confused.

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Jason asked

"Wait, seriously? You guys have never heard of Tristan McLean?" Piper's surprised temporarily overrides her concern

"I've been in a coma for four years. I'm a little out of date." Thalia said, Jason just shrugged

"He's a famous movie star. Played the King of Sparta?"

"The 300 rip-off?" Jason asked, still looking a little lost.

Piper nodded.

"Oh, I never saw that. I usually don't watch movies about historical events. I find they're really inaccurate."

"Well it wasn't really meant to be historical so much as it was meant to be an action movie." Piper said "Wasn't there a movie a few months ago around the Kennedy Assassination?"

"Well yeah but that wasn't focusing on Kennedy himself. More about the motives behind the assassination."

"I wouldn't know. It came out while I was in Bedrock so."

"Oh it's not bad. Going of the reviews, at least. You should see it." Jason said

It occurred to Piper how wired this was. Making small-talk about movies who knew what had happened to her Dad.

Jason seemed read her thoughts and changed subject. He cleared his throat "Anyway, going off the fact that there's no sign of forced entry, and the fact that the blast blew out, not in. Your Dad must've invited the person in. Then when they tried to take him, he must've put up a fight, or there'd be no reason to cause such an explosion."

"I hate to be the one to say it." Thalia piped up "But you know this can't be a coincidence, right? Your Dad getting kidnaped right after the Burnout. They're trying to get to you, Piper."

"Well, obviously." Piper said "But why to get to me? What've I got that's worth taking my father hostage?"

"A good quiestion." Jason said "And I promise you the flu resources of the Wolf House will work on figuring that out." he put a hand on her shoulder, and surprisingly Piper didn't feel scared to let him touch her "We will find him, Piper."

Piper nodded solemnly "Yeah." she said, avoiding either ones gaze "I guess we might as well stay here for the night. We'll get a plane for New York tomorrow morning okay? I just . . . I wanna sleep."

Jason and Thalia exchanged looks. Neither of them looked happy with the idea, but neither of them said anything.

Finally Jason said "Alright."

"Good. Well, Night then." Piper said before she went off to find her old bedroom

* * *

><p>It was late at night when the knock came at the door. Annabeth went to answer it and found a tall, beefy looking girl with stringy brown hair in a red bandana standing in the doorway.<p>

"I saw what you did." the girl said "You knew what was going to happen, didn't you?"

Annabeth nodded "Yes, I did."

"You lead the Brotherhood right?" the girl asked

"Yes." she replied

Annabeth peered past the girl and saw two other figures standing behind her. They looked similar enough to be related but hugely different for siblings. One was a huge, muscle bound man in a hockey jersey. The other was a slender, pale, undeniable beautiful, girl with pitch black hair and a white dress.

"We want in."

Annabeth opened the door and invited them inside.

* * *

><p>Fortunately Frank was still asleep when Reyna came into the infirmary. All the lights were off inside and you could barely see anything. But Reyna was familiar enough with the infirmity to know her way around.<p>

She walled silently to the bed Frank Zhang was sleeping soundly in, a small box in hand. She stepped up to the sacks of clear fluids being pumped into his body and opened the box. Inside was a sack of clear fluid exactly identical to the ones hooked up to him.

Reyna stole the intended sack of medical nutrients and replaced it with her own. Leaving the contents to be pumped into Frank's body overnight and ensuring his silence for the time being.

She couldn't help but smile at how easy it was as she walked out of the infirmity.

* * *

><p>Jason had decided to go up to the roof.<p>

Why, he really wasn't sure. Probably just because he wanted to be up high. When he'd taken Piper flying today, the look on her face had reminded him just how amazing his power truly was. Mankind had dreamed about flight for as long as anyone could remember, and he actually COULD.

It seemed a little ironic they hated him for that.

But the way Piper had stared at him when he'd shown her . . . that wasn't a look of fear, or panic, just one of wonder and surprise. That was towards his powers, at least. He was sure she was still wary of him, as was made perfectly clear by the way she'd treated him thus far. But he intended to fix that.

It really was a spectacular view from the roof. With the woods under the stray sky and an almost full moon. It looked like a Norman Rockwell painting. Wait, that wasn't right. Whatever, it looked really pretty.

Maybe it was because he was so busy enjoying the view, or because of the exceptional skill of the person behind him that he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. At least, not until he felt a piercing pain in his neck as someone stabbed a needle into him. He tried to call out, but they'd already covered his mouth. Besides, he could already feel the concoction of chemicals they'd injected into him taking effect. He couldn't move.

He caught one last glimpse of the pretty view from the roof before he fell into unconsciousness. His attacker already hauling him away.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey do you know what I'm f<strong>**ucking proud of? This story.**

**Do you have any idea how long I've spent planning chapters in advance and preparing a chapter? An unhealty amount.**

**Do you know how proud I was of that last chapter? Extremely.**

**Do you know how many reviews that chapter got? One. One solidary review.**

**Do you have any fucking idea how frustrating it is when you spend a lot of time one something and put a lot of effort into it and are very proud of your work and it does not receive the attention it deserves? Dangerously high.**

**Do you know what keeps me motivated to actually keep writing this? Reviews. **


	6. Joy to the World

**Just so that we're clear. THIS is what I can create when I have enough time to focus. I wrote this in one day. One. **

**Also, thank you, to the people that subscribed and reviewed since the last chapter came out. I know my AN on the last chapter might've been a little harsh but I mean it's true. It's very frustrating for me to put so much work into this story, and be really proud of my work, and just have to deal with so little recognition. I know everyone's felt like that before and I guess I'm just sorry for being kinda pushy about it. **

**Also, Merry Christmas all!**

* * *

><p>When Jason woke slowly and groggily from his drug-induced sleep to find himself tied to a table, he only wished he could say it was a first.<p>

He examined what he could of his situation. He was wearing nothing but his underwear, that much was obvious. But it seemed whatever drug had been uses on his was still somewhat in effect. His whole body felt so stiff it hurt to resist. Looking up, he saw one of those long, thin cylindrical light bulbs. Which meant he wasn't in a residential home. More likely he was in a government building. Waiting to be dissected and experimented on. There was only one light bulb. He was in a very small room, then.

He turned his head to try and get a better understanding. He was right, he was in a very small room without any decoration. Another indication of a government-owned building. He tried to turn his wrists in their bonds. They were so tight they nearly cut off his circulation. They appeared to be chains made of solid gold. Going by the angle, they were attached to the floor.

Gold . . . interesting. And problematic. Gold was an excellent conductor of electricity so he couldn't just electrify his way out of them. It also meant whoever took him had a prestanding understanding of his abilities. Had he been under observation?

Then he noticed something. On one of the walls was a mirror in which Jason had a pretty good view of himself tied to a table In his underwear. But more importantly, in the bottom-left corner there was a familiar logo. A smile.

Jason couldn't help but burst out laughing. He should've guessed.

"Alright, you can come up now." he announced

"I have no idea what you're talking about." a voice responded from behind the mirror "I've been here the whole time."

Jason strained to watch the door open and the near exact image of his girlfriend stepped inside.

"Hello Hylla." Jason said stiffly

"Jason." she replied just as coldly.

She and Jason had never been on good terms. In fact, the only reason they didn't regularly try to kill each other was their mutual care for her younger sister, Reyna.

"Well at least I know you've got good reason for taking me. If you was the one who'd kidnapped me either you've finally decided to do me in, or things are a lot worse then I'd thought. I mean if you were your sister-"

"Yes well let's not get into if I were my sister and you were tied to a table in nothing but your underwear." Hylla snapped before while she undid his chains

"Yeah was there any real gold reason for that?"

"The table, or the underwear do you mean?"

"Both."

"Yes." Hella said simply as she undid the last bond and shoved a change of clothes at him "Naturally, we couldn't let you have any idea where our headquarters are. Thus our rather forceful invitation."

"It was kidnapping. Let's call a spade a spade." Jason chimed

"It's standard procedure to strip any and all prisoners to remove any way they could be hiding weapons. You were only allowed to keep what you did because, frankly, I have no interest in seeing my baby sister's boyfriend nude."

"Not that I don't love our little talks, Hyl," Jason said as he started to dress "But I was kinda doing something important. There are two girls I've got in my custody and-"

"Oh we're perfectly aware of your situation." Hella said crisply "The McLean residence has been under our observation since we took you. Don't worry, Amazons never let their guard down. Unlike a certain Wolf House agent I could name."

Jason felt his face burn in spite of himself. As much as it killed him, Hella was right. He'd been careless last night, and now he was going to have to suffer the consequences.

"Wolf House agents don't usually bother with the mess of kidnapping. We just neutralize the threats."

Hylla sniffed "Well the Amazons are not the Wolf House. We d things rather differently. We are stronger, faster-"

"More arrogant." Jason mumbled

"And I am their Queen." Hylla said sharply "You will treat me with respect."

Jason's blood was really boiling now. Hylla was just one of those people where every word she uttered was an aggravation to him. But he retained himself. The last thing anyone in Wolf House needed was the threat of war from the Amazons.

"Why. Am. I. Here? Your highness." he spat

Hylla gave him an evil look for a moment. If he didn't see that same look from Reyna about once a week, he probably would've been pretty shaken. It really was uncanny, how much the two of them looked a like. Even without the age gap, no one would've suspected Jason and Thalia were related, let alone siblings. But these and Reyna were practically twins, even though there was just as big an age-gap between the two of them as there was between Jason and Thalia. Reyna swore once they'd switched places for a week once without anyone noticing.

"Simple." Hella said finally, handing him a sealed envelope "I need you to deliver a message to my sister."

* * *

><p><em>"Alright, who was the New Jersey Plan was proposed by?"<em>

_"Um . . . James Madison?"_

_"No, William Peterson. James Madison proposed the Virginia Plan. Which called for . . . ?" Annabeth sat quietly waiting for a response_

_"Uh . . ." A teenage Percy squeezed his eyes shut, trying to concentrate "Three branches of government, Judicial, Executive, and Federal."_

_"Legislative." Annabeth corrected "But go on."_

_"Right, Legislative. That's Congress, right?"_

_"Right."_

_"And the state plans were about how many votes each state should have in Congress."_

_"Yes. And why was this important?" Annabeth urged_

_"Because all the states were really different from each other. And what was good for one state wouldn't be good for another. And the Northern states didn't want the same as the Southern states."_

_"Well, yes and no." Annabeth said "The Northern and Southern states **were **extremely different, and had different economies. But the issue wasn't so much about economic dispute, it was about each state having equal say. The Virginia Plan wanted the number of votes a state had in Congress to depend on the state population. This would give more power to the larger states, and Virginia was the largest. The New Jersey plan wanted each state to have the same number of votes regardless. This gave more power to the small states."_

_"Ugh." Percy slammed his head against his History textbook "How am I supposed to remember all this?" he mumbled helplessly_

_"Do you want to take a break?" Annabeth was getting pretty sick of studying herself, by this point_

_"Yes." Percy said weakly "But I can't. I need to get this."_

_"Why're you taking school so seriously all of a sudden?" Annabeth asked. She'd been wondering this ever since he came and asked for tutoring. She had known Percy from school for a while at this point and she'd never seen him study for anything. _

_Percy looked at her for a second, like he was contemplating telling her. Then he sighed._

_ "My Mom." he confessed "Well, not her really. She's got this . . . **boyfriend." **He said the word like it was some kind of deadly poison _

_"You don't sound real happy about that." Annabeth noted_

_"No, it's not that." Percy said "It's just . . . my stepfather was not a good man. Actually he was more like the picture of an absolute dick. But if I get started on a rant about Smelly Gabe I'll never stop."_

_"Smelly Gabe?" Annabeth couldn't help but crack a smile_

_Percy smiled too "Yeah, Smelly Gabe. I nick-named him that when I was a kid. I'm sorry but the guy reeked like you would not believe. Actually, I'm not even sorry. Take a shower you filthy pig!"_

_Annabeth laughed out loud at this. Something in his tone made it hard not to laugh. Percy gave a small smile himself._

_When he spoke next, Percy spoke so softly, looking at his fingers, that Annabeth might've missed in in the noise of her own laughter. "He used to hit her."_

_Annabeth's laugh died instantly "He what?"_

_"It was when I wasn't around. I was always shipped off to boarding schools so I never saw it much. She made a bunch excuses. Tried to keep me from going ape shit. I guess after that I'm a little protective."_

_Annabeth didn't say anything. (What could she say? She tried to speak but noises wouldn't come out. Why was he telling her something so personal in the first place?) Finally Percy cleared his throat._

_ "Anyway, this new guy. He's a teacher and he and Mom have been getting along really well. Like **really **well. And I can see he really does care about her, and he treats her right. And they seem to be getting serious. I guess I wanted to impress him. Show him I'm not some idiot who can't get higher then a C-."_

_"Well that's . . . really sweet, actually." Annabeth finally managed _

_Percy turned his head away, but not before Annabeth saw him blush. _

_"How do you get this stuff, Annabeth? You've got dyslexia and ADHD too, right? But you always get good grades. That's why I asked you for help. I figured you'd get what it's like."_

_"I don't know I guess . . . it just always came naturally, I guess." Annabeth confessed "My Dad's a professor on history at a university, so I guess that helps. He would always talk about this stuff. War and strategy, especially. He loved that stuff. I guess I just picked it up orally."_

_"Lucky." Percy mumbled _

_"It also helps that I have nothing better to do." Annabeth added, wanting to make Percy feel better "I mean it's that or spend time with my step-brothers."_

_"Are they older or younger?" Percy asked_

_"Younger." Annabeth replied "They're barely thirteen."_

_"Oh you are lucky." Percy said "All I've got for siblings is a two-year old my Mom adopted from the streets, Tyson."_

_ "Oh my God are you kidding? My brothers suck! When they first moved in, after our parents got married, they used to cover me with spiders in my sleep. Not little rubber ones either. I don't even want to know where they got so many life spiders. I had nightmares about it for years. Their mother wouldn't do anything. I still can't stand the little creepy-crawlies!"_

_"Wait a second, were you the one who..."_

_"Yeah." Annabeth said, remembering a cruel prank someone had played on her earlier that year. _

_While taking a shower after gym class, Annabeth had found hundreds of rubber spiders dumped on her head from above. They never found out who was behind it. She'd refused to go to school for a week. She still couldn't shower in the locker room._

_"I am so sorry." Percy said. Sounding surprisingly sincere _

_"Let's just get back to studying." Annabeth said _

_Three days later Percy's pulled her aside after school and showed her his graded History test. _

_"B-." he beamed "I've never gotten a B anything in my life! Thank you!" _

_Then, in one movement it seemed,__ h__e kissed her on the cheek, hugged her, and ran off._

_ It was so fast Annabeth might've missed it if Luke hadn't shown up to pick her up from school just then. As soon she she got in his car, he sang out "Annabeth and Percy sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N- OW!"  
><em>

_Annabeth had hit him with her calculus book "Shut up!" she hissed _

_Then suddenly Annabeth wasn't in Luke's crappy old car. She was in the reception hall. Water sprayed down from the ceiling, people ran around in a mad panic. Suddenly Annabeth saw Percy in the crowd, she made a mad dash for him, and he made a dash for her. Just as they were about to reach each other, the scene changed again._

_Now she and Percy stood in front of an alter, hands joined. On their fingers were their wedding rings. To one side of them was a small crowd of people. To the other, was a priest. Annabeth couldn't help but notice how handsome Percy looked. He gave her a smile and a gentle squeeze of her hand._

_"You may now kiss the bride." The priest said, and Percy leaned to kiss her. Their__ lips were maybe an inch apart when the gunshot rang out and Percy's form collapsed. He fell to the floor, the demented halo of blood already spilling out. Annabeth tried to scream but her voice wouldn't work. She reached out but suddenly she was struck by unbearable pain. She looked down and saw blood spreading across her stomach, staining her white wedding dress._

Annabeth jerked awake in a cold sweat. Safe and alone in her queen bed.

It was a dream? Then why could she still feel the pain?

**(DG: Did I have any particular purpose for spending so much of the chapter on a dream sequence? Well, I guess I just felt like Percy is at major risk of fading to the background and I do want to have him become a center character, but one of the things that made me want the write this story was being able to play around with Dark!Annabeth. And I needed him out of the way so I could focus on that, rather then Percabeth fluff. So I'm going to try and keep him around through flashbacks and whatnought. He will wake up eventually, but no time soon.)**

She turned over, reaching instinctively for Percy. She would always snuggle with him and rest her head on her chest if she had a bad dream. He was like a fleshy pillow, always warm, and he smelled like saltwater. But she only found her hand fall into empty sheets. Now she was really awake. For a minute she just stared at the empty space next to her. Suddenly the bed felt significantly colder. Finally Annabeth lifted the covers, and saw her clothes were stained with blood.

"Oh, great." she said out loud

She tuned on the light and went to the bathroom. Once she'd gotten herself situated, she began washing the blood out of her underwear. **(DG: she got her period. In case that wasn't very clear.) **The bathroom counter was unusually cluttered. Since what'd happened with Percy, Annabeth had taken to wearing make-up. Before, she never wore make-up. She hated it, in fact. But now it gave her one extra thing to do in the mornings. One more small distraction from the over-bearing absence in her usual routine. Plus, it made it easier to hide how horrible she really felt inside. She still could look 'good' and sometimes people thought she was doing better. It was like a mask.

When she looked in the mirror now, with nothing on her, all she saw was how tired she looked.

She looked at the empty bed waiting for her, and she knew she couldn't go back to sleep. Holy shit her stomach hurt. She decided to go and find some pain-killers, before she did anything else.

So she wandered the dark hallways of the Princess Armadia alone until she started hearing familiar voices talking up ahead.

"How much are we looking to get?" that sounded like Clarisse

"We'll need at least ten G's and then we need weapons and ammunition." and that was defiantly Luke "And I'll be coming with you to make sure things go alright."

"Please. This is hardly my first job." Clarisse replied smugly

"But it's your first for the Brotherhood." Luke replied coldly "I don't know what slop, small-time business you used to do. But going of how you got arrested, I'm going to say you're not all you like to think you are."

"You little punk!"

"What is going on?" Annabeth interrupted. By now her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she could see Luke and Clarisse were getting in each Other's faces, also neither of them looked happy she'd overheard them

"Annabeth, it's like three in the morning. What are you doing up?" Luke tried

"I could say the same to you." She snapped

There was a tense moment, then Annaebth said "Clarisse, go to bed. I'll deal with you later."

"You don't tell me what to do." Clarisse protested

"Except I do." Annabeth shot back coldly "Get lost."

Clarisse gave both of them dirty looks before she finally marched off.

"Annabeth, I-" Luke tried

"You're running jobs again, Luke? Did I miss something?" Annabeth cut him off "We promised we wouldn't go back to that. You promised, Luke."

"I know! I just-"

"No! I don't want to hear your excuses!" Annabeth was yelling now "That is not what the Brotherhood is. That's not what we're about. We fight for mutant equality, that's it."

"And how do you propose we 'fight' for that? We both know the humans won't listen to reason." Luke stabbed at her

"Don't try and twist this around on me!"

"Luke offered her a cruel sneer in reply "And here I thought you'd learned something, Wise Girl."

* * *

><p>"Jason Michael Grace." Thalia said coldly as Jason tried to sneak in the window.<p>

Crap, it was still early in the morning, so Jason had assumed they'd be asleep. He hadn't been planning on having to explain he'd been kidnapped. Besides, he couldn't, even if he wanted to.

"Where the hell were you?"

"I, uh, went for a run."

_'Shit.'_

"Yeah I do that sometimes."

_Yeah, when people are shooting at me!_

"I'm sorry. I should've left a note."

_She is not buying it. Abort! Abort!_

"Oh my God, you were a better liar when you were seven." Talia said, deadpan

_I still don't see that as being a bad thing. Why am I always getting in trouble for it?_

"Let me guess." Talia said "Wolf House stuff? Something top-secret?"

"Uh . . . "

"I'll just take that as a yes." Thailia said

_Dear God it's like one of those zombie movies where you just can't look away and have to suffer through all the disgusting rotting flesh_

Just then Piper appeared in the doorway. "Hey, you guys ready? I pulled a few strings and got us an early flight to New York. It'll be here in about a half-hour."

"Cool." Jason said, eager to change the subject "Wait, it's coming to us?"

"Yeah. My Dad's private helicopter. Don't worry, we've got a pilot." Piper said

"Oh hey, when we get to New York, we should do some shopping." Thalia said as she followed Piper out of the room, leaving Jason alone "I've got four years worth of TV shows to catch up on and I fully intent to take advantage of rich company."

_(FLASHBACK)_

_"I need you to take a message to my sister." Hylla said_

_A considerable amount of time passed before Jason spoke "You're fucking kidding, right?"_

_"You know fully well I'm not." Hylla replied "I have come across critical information about the Wolf House that has to get to her immediately."_

_"See, Hella, this is what most people use E-mail for." Jason said "Or, I don't know, human interaction. Or even the post office for Christ's sake. They don't kidnap people."_

_"Computers are hacked everyday. Mail intercepted. Conversations overheard or recorded. And you and I both know Reyna and I rarely manage pleasantries. There's just to much history between us. You wouldn't understand."_

_"Stole all her ninja turtles? Took her cupcake without asking? Wouldn't leave her room?" Jason replied_

_When Hylla glared at him, he just smiled cheekily to piss her off a little more. _

_"Do you know how I came across this information, Jason?" Hylla posed_

_"By sneaking around and doing stuff things?" Jason rolled his eyes_

_"Well, yes." Hylla admitted "But why do you think I bother to keep an eye on your stupid Wolf House?"_

_"Because you're not keeping an eye on Wolf House." Jason said "You're keeping an eye on Reyna."_

_"My first priority is, as always, my little sister's safety and happiness. I know she is perfectly capable of fighting her own battles and taking care of herself. But you never get to outgrow family, and you certainly don't get to outgrow big sister breathing down your neck. You'd do well to keep that in mind, Jason." _

_Wait, she wasn't hinting at Talia was she? That was impossible. He'd had all record of her erased a long time ago. He'd been meaning to replace all the information, of course, but he hadn't gotten a chance yet. How would she know about her?_

_"You see for some stupid, irritating, and I suspect blond reason, Reyna sees Wolf House as her home now." Hylla continued "Which means that, by extension, all of Wolf House is under my personal protection. To threaten Wolf House would be to threaten Reyna, and I will not tolerate that. Now it would appear Wolf House is about to collapse in on itself." Hella handed him the envelope "So I advise you get moving."_

_She stabbed him in the neck with another tranquilizer dart and Jason passed out. _

* * *

><p><strong>(This scene is an orgy of plot-holes. I apologize in advance)<strong>

Leo delt with his problems in the true American fashion: with a giant bag of McDonald's.

Once he had his food he drove out to the middle of no where, parked his car, and sat on the hood eating, staring up at the stars. It was getting cold outside. Leo wondered what month of year it was. He hadn't been in Bedrock that long, but when he tried to estimate how long he'd been there, it felt like something was jamming his brain. He zipped up his army jacket to keep warm.

For a second he thought about doing . . . _that. _But he quickly pushed it away, he'd promised himself a long time ago he'd never use his powers again. Then again, he'd just learned he wasn't nearly as alone as he'd used to believe. Maybe . . .

No. No way, Valdez.

"Excuse me." said a small voice off to the side. Leo tuned and saw a little girl standing a few feet away from his car.

"Oh hey, kid." Leo said "What's up?"

The kid looked ashamed, but she pointed to his bad of McDonald's and asked "C-Could I have some? Please?"

Leo smiled at the little girl and handed her the bag. "Help yourself."

He hadn't considered that there'd be homeless kids in New Rome. But, then again, they were a city. No reason they'd be to much different. Leo looked at the little girl's face light up. He saw her dark skin and dirty curly hair and he couldn't help remembering times he'd probably looked the same way. Back when he'd rejoice at an adult giving him a bag of McDonald's.

"You cold, kid?" he asked. The girl wasn't dressed nearly warm enough to be out so late at night in such cold weather.

"Y-yes sir." she replied, not looking at him

Leo scooched over to make room for her on the hood "You wanna climb up? I've got the engine running, it's pretty warm."

The little girl hesitated a second, then climbed on.

"What's your name?" Leo asked

"Um . . . Cashew."

Leo laughed "No it's not."

"No it's not." Cashew agreed "You're that guy that walked out on Reyna right? That takes guts. No one ever walks out on her."

"It wasn't that impressive." Leo said

"What happened?"

"She wanted me to make her stuff that would hurt people, and I didn't want to do that." Leo said

"Does that have anything to do with what you're doing way out here all by yourself?" she asked as she started eating a McChicken

"Maybe. I guess I just wanted to be alone for a bit. I'm usually better off alone." Leo said

"I don't believe that." Cashew said "I don't believe anyone's better off alone."

"Well I guess I'm not like most other people." he said

Then suddenly Leo felt something he'd never felt before. He wanted to use his powers. He wanted to show them to this little girl. Something should've stopped him, something should've made his shut his stupid mouth but before he could stop himself he found himself saying "You wanna see something weird?"

Cashew smiled in a little-kid way "Always."

Leo took his hand out of his pocket and stared down at it. He suddenly felt extremely self-conscious about his long, nimble fingers and his chipped, dirty fingernails. He felt an odd tingle run through his flesh, and suddenly his hand erupted into flame. A small ball of dancing, orange tongs, contained in his palm.

"Wow." Cashew said as she leaned in towards his fire "That's amazing."

"Hey careful!" Leo jerked his hand back before she could get to close "Don't you know fire's dangerous? Fire can kill you."

"But it didn't hurt you." Cashew pointed out "Maybe your fire is different."

"Trust me, kid." Leo said "It's not."

* * *

><p>"Senator? You've got calls at half-hour intervals all throughout the day. Should I cancel some of them?" Senator Octavian's secretary, Katie, asked. Poking her head into his office<p>

"No, cancel all of them." the Senator replied, he was watching the news from his desk "They're all asking about the same thing. That damn Burnout!" he threw the TV remote in frustration "Now I've got press breathing down my neck, millions of tax-payers dollars down the drain and thousands of escaped freak convicts!"

"What will you do then, sir?" Katie asked

The Senator considered this, he scratched his jaw in contemplation. "Cancel the calls. But announce a press conference for next . . . Sunday. I'll smooth out all the bumps there."

"Very well, sir." Katie said

"We can't let those freaks run lose, that's for sure." Senator Octavian said "Someone's gotta be the voice of God in these times. And if I must be that voice, then I must."

"Yes, sir." Katie said as she left his office and went to announce the press conference

* * *

><p>Later, Leo found himself forcing his way into Reyna's office "Alright. I'll do it." he declared<p>

Reyna just smiled, like this didn't surprise her. "I'm glad to hear it."

"But not weapons. Transportation, communication, whatever, just not weapons." Leo added

"Very well, Of course you're pay won't be as high as I planned."

"That's fine."

"May I ask what changed your mind?" Reyna asked

"A little kid." Leo said "I don't know what the future might hold for mutants. But you've got kids in this city. And they deserve their best chance. If there's any way I can make that possible, I'd couldn't live with myself."

Reyna gave him a smile and handed him the binder back to him "Well then, Leonardo Riccardo Valdez, welcome to the Wolf House."

* * *

><p>It was dark outside when Thalia Grace plopped next to her younger brother. They were sitting on the stoop of an apartment building in Brooklyn. Annabeth Chase's apartment building, to be exact.<p>

"Empty." She said defeated "I can't believe we came all this way and it's just . . . empty. I called her boss, the landlady, I even tried her Dad. They say this is where she lives. What did she just . . . picked up and leave? That's not like her. I mean there's nothing, no furniture, no sign of struggle, not even a note. Everyone says they saw her within the last week. So what happened?"

Jason looked at her, with a growing pain in his stomach

"I guess it's a little pointless to ask you, huh?" She said with some humor

"You might want to Google 'Red Wedding'." Jason suggested, binding her his phone

A couple minutes passed as Thalia looked up a news article about a hate crime in which a wedding between two mutants was crashed by a small party of monsters. The groom had been shot twice. Once in the head and once in the abdomen. Fortunately, no major organs were punctured, but a wound to his skull left the man in a comatose state. Police did very little investigation on the crime and no arrest was ever made.

"Oh my God." Talia said when she was done "They were going to get married?"

Jason tried for a small smile, which only seemed to have the opposite effect.

"I should've been there." She said

"There was nothing you could've done." Jason said

"You've never seen me in a real fight, little brother." Thalia smiled bitterly

"I've lost four years of my life, or more importantly, four years of everyone else's. I just feel so cheated." she groaned and leaned back across the rising stairs

"I think I know the feeling." Jason said, unintentionally making his sister feel worse.

"I know." Thalia said, sitting up again "I missed a lot of stuff with you growing up. I swear if I'd known what Mom'd done-"

"I know." Jason stopped her. They didn't need to go into all that

"But I am going to make up for it." Thalia promised "I'm looking forward to finding out who that stupid little boy grew up to be."

Jason smiled and kissed her on the forehead

"No seriously. Stop being taller then me." Thalia said

* * *

><p>"I don't like this." Annabeth said frankly as she stood in the sporting goods store<p>

"Oh come on. You said so yourself. We need somewhere to hide from the cops." Clarisse shot back. She punched through a glass display case and dished out a javelin. "Oh, Mama likes."

"Exactly, we're supposed to be hiding. Not stealing." Annabeth said flatly

Clarisse groaned "You have _got_ to get off your high horse of yours, Princess. Life as a mutant is very simple. See. Want. Take." she waved her new javelin in Annabeth's face "Why are you still even fighting it? Don't you want to get them back? After what they did to your hubby I'd think you'd be pissed. Maybe you're just pushover after all."

"He wasn't my husband." Annabeth said softly "The monsters shot him before we could even start the ceremony."

Annabeth cranked her head and scanned the dark store. On the wall was a display case, inside of which was a beautiful bronze knife.

"See." she stepped up the display case

"Want." she yanked the display case down, the glass shattering everywhere

"Take." she plucked the knife from the broken bits of glass and examined it like a trophy

"Now you're getting it." Clarisse said with a harsh smile

That was when the cops found them. At least, Annabeth thought it was the cops.

"Shut." Clarisse hissed, she scooped up a register and dashed out the back. Annette was about to follow her when someone called out.

"Annabeth, come out! There's no need to make a show of this." she knew that voice. That was not a cop.

She came out the front and found Jason Grace standing alone, a hologram protector at his feet. The projector made a convincing couple of cop cars from a distance, but up close it easy to see they were fake.

"What's the big show for?" Annabeth asked plainly

"For getting rid of your partner." Jason explained "Don't worry, my sister's going after her now. I was hoping we could have another talk."

"Pass." Annabeth said and made a run for it

Jason was on her in no time, of course. But Annabeth dodged him and kicked him in the chest. He took the kick well, but it gave her enough time to think to use her knife. She made to stab him in the stomach, only to find her move stopped as Jason's strong grip slapped around her wrists, keeping her knife about an inch from his body.

"Do you have any idea how to use that thing?" He sneered

Suddenly, Annabeth found herself pinned. Her own knife held against her throat

"I could've killed you by now." Jason whispered in her ear "I am not the enemy here. I don't want to hurt you, Annabeth."

"Too bad for you." she snarled. She used her free hand to punch him in the balls. It took effect immediately and Annabeth took advantage of his weakness to free herself and wrestle her knife from his grip. Then she made a dash for the nearest alleyway and hid.

Invisibility. That was Annaneth's mutation. And with the dark night working to her advantage, she was as good as gone. Good Riddance.

It didn't take Jason long to catch up to her, but he was greeted by nothing but an empty alleyway. For a minute, he looked confused. Where could she have gone? Then he started to come in closer, he eyes looked calculating and determined. Annabeth started to think he wasn't as fooled as she'd expected. Her heart began to beat faster in her chest.

Then suddenly, an all to familiar voice called out "Jason!"

Annabeth was so surprised she almost became visible again. She watched on, in absolute amazement, as her lost friend Thalia ran, panting, up to Jason Grace.

"Sorry, she got away. I guess I'm a little out of practice."

Jason smiled at her "After all that 'you've never seen me in a real fight, little brother' bull, you let her get away?" he let out a laugh

Little brother? Did she just hear right?

"Hey, no swearing!" Thalia snapped "And I've been asleep for years! Where's your excuse?"

Jason blushed when she asked that "She . . . punched me in the nuts and ran away." he muttered

"Wait what? Am I allowed to laugh at that? Because I'm trying very hard not to laugh at that." and then she did dissolve into laughter.

Yeah. That was defiantly Thalia.

* * *

><p>"So it seems Leo is going to stay." Hazel said to Reyna<p>

"Yes, it does." Reyna replied simply "And I'm sure you had absolutely nothing to do with that."

"You'll find if you ask him, I was never there. As for Cashew . . ."

"Cashew? You're kidding right?"

"I panicked, okay?"

Reyna just smiled


	7. What You Love Most

**This chapter is really rushed and sloppy. I'm sorry to be presenting such poor work to you guys, especially considering how amazing you were the past two updates, but it's just been so long since my last update and I needed to come up with something. I've tried several times over the past couple weeks to writer this chapter but they just kept turning out to be garbage. So this is the best I've come up with. I'm sorry.**

* * *

><p>Sweat was beginning to bead on Jason's forehead when Reyna arrived. He'd been pounding on the punching bag for a half hour now, but he wasn't even starting to lose steam.<p>

"Hey, Grace." Reyna tried, Jason ignored her.

Reyna sighed in defeat "Jason please. I can't take the silent treatment anymore. I know you're mad at me, point taken. Can we please get to trying to work through it?"

"Seventy nine." Jason said

"What?" Reyna said out of a combination of confusion and surprise

"That was the total body count from the Burnout. Seventy nine mutant lives taken, and they think I'm responsible?" Jason stopped punching the bag and just shook his head "You should've told me I was accused."

"I know. I wanted to. But-"

"But what?" Jason snapped "You knew how it would've looked if I'd left, but you let me do it anyway!"

"I couldn't, alright."

"Why? What could weren't leaving me out to dry like that?"

"I wanted you to have sometime with your sister, alright." Reyna snapped "Thalia had woken up less then an hour before. You hadn't seen each other in fourteen years. I just wanted you to be able to get to know each other without this hanging over you." she explained "Look I know that's not that's not a good excuse but I'm not trying to excuse myself. I know what I did was wrong, and you have every right to be mad at me."

A moment of long contemplation passed before Jason spoke. "You want to help me with my sister? Figure out how I'm supposed to tell her her best friend is a terrorist. Otherwise just go away."

"Okay." Reyna agreed "See You."

* * *

><p>'There is no way I'm going to remember all these names.' Leo thought as he looked over the sizable group of people that would be his team. It felt wired, being the one in charge for once. He wasn't really used to telling people what to do.<p>

A beefy black man came up to him from the group, he held out a huge, meaty hand for him to shake. "You must be Leo, right? My names Charles, but most people call be Beckendrof." he said as he nearly crushed Leo's tiny, fragile looking hand in his "I'll be second-in -command here if that's alright. I've been working with most of these guys for a while now already so-"

"No, no problem." Leo assured him "I'm not much of a leader anyway. As far as anyone needs to be concerned I'm just the idea guy. I'll probably be the weirdo doing my own thing in a corner."

Beckendrof cracked a grin "Oh, you'd be surprised. Don't worry, it'll sink in. So, what's our first project?"

"Well . . . " Leo sheepishly pulled out a rolled up blue-print and spread it across the table. Beckenbrof studied the blue print and cracked another smile

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope."

"Alright then. Let's do this."

(Time gap to the end of the day!)

The rest of the crew had already gone home for the day, but Leo'd stayed late. He was supposed to be packing up to lock up the workshop for the night. Actually, he didn't have any intention of leaving anytime soon.

He sat cross-legged on the floor, with his laptop in his lap, Frank's ID card laid unassumingly next to him. His fingers flew across the key board as he hammered through firewall after firewall, cracking his way into the MRD database. Inside was a treasure chest of dirty secrets. Horrible truths about Bedrock, government plans, secret weapons, Leo tore through it all like a kid on Christmas. Finally he found it, the crowned jule of all.

"There you are, you beauty." he said aloud

"Gee, thanks." a voice said from behind him, making him jump

"Piper?" Leo replied, more surprised then ever now

"Yes, I'm aware of my name. What are you doing on the floor?"

"I don't know I felt like sitting on the floor." Leo replied "What are you doing here?"

"They only arrested Jason. He's under house arrest, I think, but they didn't have any reason to keep me."

"No, I mean-"

"I know what you mean, Leo." Piper signed "You're hacking the MRD database, right? Mind if I join you."

"Um, sure, I guess."

Piper sat down next to him and saw what was on his screen. She rolled her eyes at him "Really, dude?"

"Oh fuck yes." Leo replied with a big smile. He hit 'Save' with gusto.

"So what's on here, really?"

"Mostly it's stuff about the mutant prisons." Leo answered "Man, there's a bunch of them now. Not just Bedrock. It makes me sick."

"Wait a second, Leo. I think I'm getting an idea."

"Uh, Is this a good idea or a Piper idea?"

Piper punched him and told him her idea.

"Piper, that might actually work."

"Where's that guard guy? I wanna ask him some things." Piper said getting up

"Piper, wait." Leo stood up too "Seriously, how are you doing? I just - I -"

Piper looked down, defeated "Honestly? I'm fine. I'm not like, Sound-of-Music Do-Re-Me fine. But I'll get over it. In the mean time some stuff came up with my Dad, I'll tell you about it later, but it made me realize it's just not worth losing a friend over."

"Look I just want to say -"

"C'mon!" Piper pulled him towards the door "I need either ice cream or a drink. Let's see what we find first."

* * *

><p>"Annabeth Jackson." A voice came from the darkness<p>

"Who's asking?" Annabeth responded

Out of the shadows came a beautiful Hispanic woman in a black trench coat "My name's Reyna. I'm with the Wolf House." she said directly

"I'm not interested in talking." Annabeth said

"Neither am I to be honest." Reyna said "But here I am." she pulled out of her pocket a newspaper clipping and handed it to her, Annabeth recognized it as Percy and here's wedding announcement, circled in red marker (DG: Yes, it is the same one from CH 1) "I heard about what happened. If it helps I can personally garuentee those monsters are dead."

"What's this about?"

"Must be quite a horrible experience to lose the person you love in such a horrible way. Some women might just fall apart. But not you, now, not you. You cause the deaths of seventy nine mutants."

"What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh I think you do. You lead the Brotherhood. You switched the bombs as part of your sabotages on construction. But the bombs need a recognized MRD source to detonate. So you waited until you could manipulate it out of someone. And Frank Zhang, bless him, is just so easy to manipulate."

"Stop."

"You caused the burnout! You killed those people!"

"No! That's not true! I-I-" Annabeth was breathing hard now, and sweating

Reyna smiled like that was what she'd been waiting for

"Yes." she said softly "Yes it is. See, that's _my _mutation. I always, _always, _know when you're lying."

A long moment passed in silence. The air suddenly felt so much colder

"What I did was free thousands of other falsely imprisoned mutants. I admit the cost was to high but it was for the good of mutants everywhere. We're on the same side here."

"I agree." Reyna said "But there's a problem. Clever move framing Jason for the Burnout. You took his ID card when he was talking to you, didn't you? I bet he never even noticed."

"How'd you know that?"

"Because my boyfriend is an idiot." Reyna said coldly "Now you're going to turn yourself into Wolf House and you're going to co fess your crimes, and you're going to face the consequences. I believe Jason left you with the address."

"Turn myself in? So you're not arresting me?"

"No. See, the Senate would just see that as my finding a scapegoat. They'd likely ignore the evidence and I'd get a scolding for letting my emotions cloud my judgment. So you're going to do this of your own free will, Annabeth."

"And if I refuse?"

Reyna smiled again. That smile sent chills down Annabeth's spine.

"You know, in my line of work I find myself waking up in a hospital or sickbay a lot. And every time the doctors have this little needle that's attached to this sack of clear liquid they're pumping into me. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"Yes?"

"Well good because I have no idea." Reyna said "Well you seem like a smart lady, educate me. What are those little sacks for?"

Annabeth hesitated and Reyna prompted her with a little "Well, go on then." like she was five.

"They're liquid nutrients. Because you can't eat solid food when your unconscious but you still burn calories, you risk starving your body if your unconscious too long."

"Very good, Annabeth. You'd be surprised how few people realize that. I find it a little concerning because how would anyone know if the sacks are being tampered with?" Reyna responded "But that's hardly an issue. It's not as if someone's life depends on those liquid nutrients right now. Oh, wait."

Annabeth's eyes widened so wide they might as well have exploded. She felt like she'd had the air kicked out of her. Reyna smiled again.

"I see I've made my point. I lose what I love, you lose what you love. Good night, Ms. Chase." She turned to leave

Before Annabeth even realized what she was doing she grabbed her new knife and hurled it at Reyna's back. She wasn't sure what surprised her more; that the knife hit square on, or that Reyna didn't even react. There was no sound of pain or change in posture whatsoever. She simply stopped, reached, and removed the blade from her back.

"Oh, I do wish you hadn't done that." she said.

Reyna dropped the knife, and disappeared into the night.


End file.
